2019 Thanksgiving Week Recap

Last week, we celebrated Thanksgiving here in the US and I have to say, ours was truly lovely!

The kids don't have school that week due to parent/teacher conferences. On Monday, we attended the kids' conferences (rave reviews!). Both of the kids are doing well in school, per their teachers. Starting in 3rd grade, the kids help lead their conferences, so they are active participants in the process. It was neat to hear their takes on school and to hear what they enjoy working on/learning.

Later in the afternoon, we went to 5 Guys for lunch and then to the movies to celebrate all four of us being on vacation for the week. We saw "Frozen 2"; it was OK, but nothing anywhere near as good as the original. One of my favorite parts of the movie was when Olaf (the snowman) recapped what had happened during the first movie. So funny!

On Tuesday, we loaded up and headed north to Whidbey to spend a few days with Eric's parents. As always, I was champing at the bit to get up there and felt myself ease into island mode as soon as we got on the ferry.

Honestly, who wouldn't feel their blood pressure and breathing rate go waaay down when views like these are the norm?

Driftwood galore

The Puget Sound lapping at Whidbey Island

Eric's mom had the idea of painting rocks together and then leaving them around the island for people to find while on walks. Tuesday afternoon, I drove into town to collect a few donations for the kids' school auction and while I did that, Eric, the kids, and his mom got to work painting the rocks. It was such a wonderful project and everyone had a great time! (I painted 2 rocks once I got back from Langley.) We sealed the designs with clear coat Wed morning and once they were dry, Eric's mom, the kids, and I drove to a variety of parks/walking trails, the post office, and a beach to distribute the rocks. The kids had so much fun finding the perfect place for each of their rocks. (Annika even found a rock someone else had left while placing one of hers!)

Whidbey Rocks!

Conor, Bestemor, and Annika - all ready to hide rocks

Beautiful rocks

Hiding rocks

Try to find it!

Annika and the "Joyful" rock she found on a walking trail

The beach rock I painted ... placed at the beach (how appropriate!)

On Wednesday, in addition to leaving rocks around the island, we played lots and lots of games at the house and prepped for Thanksgiving (aka I made pies, Bestemor and Annika made the cranberry sauce, and Bestefar made his smoked turkey). 

In addition, Conor and Bestefar went to the club and played four holes of golf. (Per Bestefar, Conor hit the ball and couldn't find it ... because it went WAY down the fairway...) 

That afternoon, after I took the kids' photos for our Christmas cards, Eric's best friend and his daughter arrived from Seattle to join us for the holiday. As soon as Dave and Anne arrived, the kids started to play and giggle themselves silly. Talk about a fun day!!

Huck REALLY hoping Bestefar will drop a piece of smoked turkey

It's always so fun when the cranberries pop!

Thanksgiving started out nice and slow. We played card games and the kids stayed in the PJs well into the day. By late morning, however, we went into full-blown holiday mode and started our dinner prep with gusto. All went swimmingly, aside from my attempt to make my rolls with gluten-free flour. The dough was sandy and didn't rise. In a last-ditch effort to make sure we had rolls, I tossed that stuff in the garbage and made them with regular flour (success!!) (Apologies to Bestefar for him not being able to have the rolls!)

With full tummies, the kids watched a movie while the grownups played cards. Dave re-taught us how to play Eucher ... the card game he taught us two Thanksgivings ago! We caught on fairly quickly, but will definitely need to practice more before next Thanksgiving to make sure we are somewhat competent at the game.

On Friday morning, we woke up, enjoyed our morning coffee, packed up our stuff, and headed back home.  One of our annual traditions is to tune the radio to 106.9 on our way to the ferry, so we can start listening to Christmas music and officially kick off the Christmas season. This year was no different! It's a neat way to transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas and one we always look forward to.

We usually stay in the car on the ferry, but because Dave and Anne were on the ferry with us, we opted to journey up to the passenger deck for a little more time together.

Conor, Annika, and Anne

It was a wonderful trip, a lovely holiday, and a true treat to spend time with Eric's parents on the island. A special thanks to Bestemor and Bestefar for hosting our chaotic crew!! We can't wait to see you on Christmas. :)

Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Prep

Since my last post, we have been eyeball deep in holidays... what feels like non-stop holidays!

HALLOWEEN
To gear up for Halloween, we made our annual pilgrimage to Fairbank Family Farm to pick out our pumpkins and say "howdy" to the various farm animals. Just like in years past, the piglets and goats were our favorite critters to see.... followed closely by the newly-hatched chicks and baby rabbits. We timed our trip to the pumpkin patch perfectly and escaped being rained on. (Insert a collective cheer and sign of relief here!)

A couple of days before Halloween, we pulled out our carving tools (aka knife and whatever pointy things we can get our hands on), covered the kitchen table with paper bags, and went to work creating our pumpkin masterpieces. Eric, once again, took on the role of artistic director (thank goodness that doesn't fall on my shoulders... it would be all sorts of "unfortunate pumpkins" if it did!) and coached the kids through the process of designing their pumpkins and making their ideas a reality. This was the first year Annika carved her pumpkin solo, which was a HUGE deal for her. One more "getting grown up" item checked off in her list! The kids were thrilled with their final results ... I was especially thrilled that everyone had all of their fingers at the end of the project and no one required a trip to the ER!

On Halloween, the kids were beyond excited to go to school because they got to wear their costumes instead of their uniforms. This was one of the rare mornings that they were up and ready to go WELL before our usual departure time. (I love Halloween because of this phenomenon, I have to admit!) Both kid had classroom parties to mark the day, so I offered to make cookies for them to take as our family's contribution. (I treated myself to the candy corn cookie cutter this year and am so happy I did!)

Annika dressed up as a vampire princess this year (complete with fancy new fangs!) and Conor was Spiderman. Both kids loved their costumes and I loved that they were super easy this year! We went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood with a couple of our neighbors and another CKS family (Annika's pal Maddy and her family). We expected to get drenched with the predicted rain, but lucked out and stayed dry the whole time. I can't even guess how much distance we covered, but it was enough that all of the kids had overflowing candy bags by the end of the night! The kids thought the houses that gave out the full-size candy bars were THE BEST and excitedly shouted "FULL SIZE HOUSE" after discovering a new one!

THANKSGIVING

We made our annual trek up to Whidbey for Thanksgiving, but this year, we had a few spins on the traditional visit. First of all, instead of going up Thursday morning, the kids and I went up Tuesday morning because they didn't have school which meant I needed to work remotely, so why not work remotely from the island?? (Duh!) Eric joined us Wednesday evening after work; he took a Lyft car from work and was able to walk on the ferry, avoiding the insane "rush hour the night before a holiday" ferry line. The second twist on our usual approach to Thanksgiving is we had my brother's dog Kirby with us. Kirby spent 10 days with us while the floors were refinished at my brother's house, so Kirby spent quite a bit of time on the island with us, too. Saying that he loved playing with my in-law's dogs would be the understatement of the year!

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, I worked during the days while the kids played outside (exhausting themselves and the dogs). We also worked on puzzles with Bestemor, went on a nice walk up to the meadow, and played lots of card/dice games. Conor's big accomplishment this year was helping Bestefar smoke the turkey ... and being the one who picked out the type of wood to use in the smoker (spoiler: he chose cherry).

In an effort to encourage the kids to make better use of the great room, I bought a 1/2-size ping pong table (thanks, pre-Black Friday sales) and got my hands on a free tabletop-size air hockey game. We also had some fun making the animal heads on the wall a bit less "I'm staring at you" for the kids (thanks, dollar store!). The games were a huge hit with everyone and did the trick of getting us to use more of the house. WIN!!

Troy and his family joined us on Thanksgiving after their week in Whistler, BC and spent the night on the island with us. I know they were happy to see us, but the Nelsons were over the moon to be reunited with Kirby for a night. That is one loved pup, let me tell you!

CHRISTMAS PREP

Each year as we drive away from Eric's parents house after Thanksgiving, we signal the start of the Christmas season by tuning the car radio to the local station that plays Christmas music 100% of the time during the holidays. Since then, we've put up the tree and gotten it decorated (complete with our annual Starbucks cup tree topper ... this year, with lights as an added bonus!), gone to Swanson's Nursery to see the reindeer (with our friend Valeria), gotten the cards mailed, visited Santa, and started on our holiday baking to-do list -- Annika and I made pizelles this past weekend (YUM)!

We still have a lot to do to get ready for Christmas, but we're getting there. The kids will start their break from school soon and they couldn't be more excited. Eric and I will take time off from work to celebrate the holidays, too... some staggered to accommodate the kids' school break days, but most at the same time. It'll be nice to be home for an extended time without the rush of regular life keeping us on our toes. Sleeping in? Yes please!!!!

Thanksgiving 2015 Recap

This year, we continued our tradition of heading up to Whidbey to spend Thanksgiving at Eric's parents' house.

They are so kind to open their doors to us each year ... and we don't say that just because Eric's dad smokes a turkey AND roasts a turkey. (SO AMAZINGLY GOOD!) Not only do they open their doors to the four of us, but also to my side of the family (who couldn't make it due to other family obligations and illness this go-around) and  the practically-family friends who we bring along.

We have a great system for dividing up the work (aka meal prep) and the holiday tends to go quite smoothly. Sure, there's chaos, but it is the good kind of "we're all here and having fun together" kind of chaos. This year, I decided to make some Thanksgiving cookies to (a) eat and (b) use as place markers at the table. I used my turkey cookie cutter for the little cookies. For the place marker (bigger) cookies, I opted to trace Annika and Conor's hands and use them to create handprint turkey cookies. Fun, right??? Each person got a handprint turkey with his or her name printed on it. I had such fun making them and using the kids' handprints made them that much more special. (Unfortunately, my in-laws' puppy got to the cookies before we unloaded them from the car. Lucky for him, he's a mighty cute dog ... it's hard to hold a grudge when the other end of the grudge is a sweet, fuzzy puppy face.)

Little turkey cookies

Handprint cookies
 

"The carnage following the Cookie Massacre of 2015"

Eric's best friend and his daughter joined us on the island this year, much to our happiness. Dave and Anne really are part of the family and having them with us to celebrate turkey day added to the whole day. Our kids played together until they practically collapsed due to exhaustion.... then played some more.  They even ventured out into the cold to decorate the driveway with a variety of sidewalk chalk creations. (After the kids returned to the warm indoors, the puppy turned almost all of the unused chalk into a snack .... whoops! Note to self: replenish the sidewalk chalk supply when we go to the island next time. Tee hee hee!!) The rest of the time, the kids kept themselves busy playing with Legos, balloons, and stuffed animals. The imaginary play they create really is remarkable!

Anne and Annika watching a movie together

Conor nibbling on a snack while watching a movie

While the turkey did its thing in the oven, we grownups pulled out the cards and played Euchre and Fool... two games that were new to us and so much fun to play. (Thanks, Dave, for taking on the role of card game instructor!) We are a competitive bunch, but even so, we have so much fun playing games together. We turn into silly creatures and are often struck with fits of giggles during times like these... it warms my heart to think of days like these. As we played cards, we were surrounded by the smells of Thanksgiving dinner in the oven and the sounds of our kids happily playing together.

After our hearty meal, we lounged in front of the TV and watched some good ol' football. In all honesty, I can't even remember who played in the game, but I do remember cheering my heart out at the time. The kids weren't overly interested in the game, so they sought shelter from the crazy grownups downstairs in the great room, where they happily played/relaxed in a world that was all their own.

We have so much to be thankful for... a roof over our heads, food in our tummies, jobs that we enjoy, our health (speaking of which, Annika's broken wrist is getting better each day!), and loved ones to celebrate the holidays with. A special thank you to Eric's parents for opening their doors and hearts to us... you are true gems!