Thanksgiving

Our turkey day philosophy has always been not to mess with our traditional menu tried and true. However, this year we decided to shake things up and prepare only our outstanding favorites for Thursday and fix other dishes over the weekend. Who ever feasted on the raw veggies? And green bean casserole was never successful at assuaging any guilt. 

Seven people, seven votes, seven items on our first menu of the holiday: turkey, cornbread dressing, sausage bread stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry relish, and flaky dinner rolls. Can you say carbolicious? We didn't count drinks so therefore managed to justify Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc. Nap time was right around the corner. Pies could wait for afternoon. We had seven happy faces and stuffed tummies!

One more reason for giving thanks - - - younger granddaughter lost her first tooth tonight while biting into a dinner roll. We're also thankful that she didn't swallow it.

More snow!

(Early Thanksgiving morning)
The ground is covered with a new blanket of snow that fell last night. Look at that sunshine we are having today! Temperature is currently at 7 degrees, yes, seven. Younger daughter arrived last night safely and almost on time. What a glorious morning!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

Separations

A popular blog topic in late August and early September is the beginning of a new school year. Young tots and their moms face their separation fears, maybe for the first time but not for the last. One friend blogged about emotions that surfaced when a child moved away to attend the first year of college. So all of you young moms might as well know that letting go may never get any easier.

I unashamedly admit that I cried every time our daughters drove away and returned to college, whether after a weekend or a longer vacation at home. I never ran down the driveway after them, not once. But through my tears flashed the childhoods they were leaving.

I remember that friends with younger children sometimes asked me how I could bear to let my girls go, how I kept from crying all the time they were gone. My answer was that if I tried to keep them home we would all cry.

Tomorrow I'm flying home after being with one daughter and her family for almost a month.  Tears will fall, but now we share them together.  The next visit never comes soon enough, but it will come.

August Evening at Gull Lake MN

Sad sad sad to Google directions for "Red Rover" children's game to learn that it is so rough that most playgrounds have banned it, especially if three dangerous variations are used. We are sticking with "May I," "Red Light Green Light," and "Simon Says" on our sandy beach. Girls learned the rules instantly and are thrilled to beat us. The lake has smoothed immensely from the last two evenings, and we're staying outside until bedtime.
This morning we played at Nisswa City Park for two hours with about twenty new kid friends. Next stop was our favorite Nisswa lunch spot A&W where girls devoured hamburgers, fries, lemonade, and ice cream in record time.

(Gotta pause this blog because a solitary loon started calling, soon answered by another, so haunting that I feel connected to the mournful canyon wrens of our Frio bluff.)

After lunch we strolled sidewalks of the main street until a girl showed up with a tiny white puppy, fluffy all over, ten months old. Our whole world stopped for admiring and cooing and petting. Sweet, but not a loon or canyon wren.

Turkey Confidence

A flock of about a dozen turkeys came into our MN backyard, pecked around for food, perched on the fence, and strolled around to the front before crossing the street. Risky behavior the day before Thanksgiving!

Son-in-law warned them about his slingshot, but nobody wanted to dig through the snow for a rock. Lucky turkeys! Lucky SIL for not having anyone call his bluff!

Lost Maples

On a Sunday in early November I went on the homes tour benefiting the library and "found" these turning maple trees beside the drive to one of the houses. They weren't truly lost but surely looked lost out on the edge of the manmade lake pond with no others in sight.

I didn't go to Lost Maples State Park this year. Reports said that half the trees finished their brilliant display early, and the remaining half turned later. They all twirled without me.

First Fire

Last night we celebrated our first fire of the season with a few friends. With mornings in the low thirties and the sun setting early, it was time to burn some wood. The outdoor fireplace was clean and ready, but I did have some concern for a couple of black squirrels I had seen scurrying around there recently. No desire for roasting any animals in the process! Husband stacked more logs than necessary, added some fire cubes, clicked the butane wand, and flames jumped to life. (I so badly wanted to write "struck the match," but that action happens so rarely these days.) Friends appeared, wine disappeared, and everyone stayed warm as the sun retreated behind the bluff.

Fall and Falling

Yep, this is a pine tree, a big pine tree, that was growing its big self in the backyard of my Minnesota daughter until Tuesday night during storm winds of 80 mph.  Miraculously, it did not strike the house or anything more valuable than other landscaping.  She was curious about what her daughters would think, but they responded with "Cool! We can make a great fort!"  They will be most disappointed when they realize that a tree removal service is coming to remove it and will leave behind only a modest amount for fort building.  Yesterday their yard also had snow falling on it for the first time this season.  We left just in time to miss the white stuff, pretty but slippery.  Tree fall, snow fall, definitely fall. 

Babysitting, Day Four

Sleep in! Stormy wind, rain, lightning, and thunder woke me before dawn but I didn't hear anyone upstairs. Later older granddaughter told me that she watched the shades in her room light up with every crash, not scared, just enchanted, sounding so much like me, except I would have wanted the shades open to better see the streaks crossing the sky. I've always enjoyed a good old thunderstorm and will sit on the porch for the best view, even if I have to snuggle under a blanket.

Starting the day with a rainy morning kept us in pajamas long after breakfast. Eventually we had to switch gears and plan for the big homecoming. The girls washed their hair, got dressed, practiced a skit, planned special treats and dinner, cleaned and straightened rooms, helped with doing laundry and putting away clean clothes, and had plenty of time to watch a movie on TV and, of course, to rehearse the skit a few more times.

Parents arrived about 4:00, and the torch passed seamlessly back to them.  Soon came the skit and treats from girls to parents, then surprises from parents to all of us.  One of the treats the girls wanted to share with parents was a platter of apple slices smeared with peanut butter we bought at the apple orchard the day before.  They were delicious enough to be appetizer, entree, and dessert all at once.  The peanut butter was made fresh from roasted peanuts and had no preservatives except honey.  Honey, no wonder it tasted better than any peanut butter ever.  We did have a choice between salt or no salt, but of course we opted for the salt.  Weather was mild enough to fire up the grill for cooking the hamburgers planned, and sitting around the table sharing a meal was life back to normal.  One final night routine, but this time after goodnight kisses on little faces we walked downstairs to pack for our trip home to Texas. 

Babysitting, Day Three

Saturday's schedule had a major wrinkle that required some juggling. Gymnastic classes for both granddaughters at 12:15, so breakfast had to be big and lunch had to be small and at 11:00. I wondered how meals would go for the rest of the day. This year the girls go to Circus Juventas for athletic and performance arts training that prepares them for the big circus show in May. After warming up and stretching, today older gd class worked on the Spanish web to climb and do aerials, then used the small trampoline to spot through hoops. Younger gd practiced with unicycles, juggled balls and rings, and tumbled on the long trampoline. A very enthusiastic staff stayed upbeat and encouraged skills that were quite impressive. Observers were mostly parents, and we were not shy about cheering when a student made progress toward mastering a trick. The whole experience was so much more than I expected. Several times I caught myself wondering about that proverbial threat of running away to join the circus, and here were families paying for that experience.

After class we returned home to change clothes and pack for a trip to an apple orchard thirty minutes away. After parking the car, we started with rubber duck races powered by water pumps powered by little hands moving up and down as fast as little arms can go. From there we moved on to hay mountain, petting zoo, goat towers, corn maze, trike track, chicken coops, playground, pumpkin patch, observation deck, raspberry bushes, and apple trees, of course. Several painted wooden cutouts provided photo ops for the girls to poke their heads through and pretend to be truck drivers, scarecrows, pumpkins, bus riders, old farmers, etc. The orchard store had plenty of goodies, but girls focused on the apple mini donuts sprinkled liberally with cinnamon sugar, fresh and hot right out of the fryer. After sampling a variety of apples, each girl chose a favorite and we bought a half peck of each. We also picked up some honey peanut butter made at the farm, some caramel apple suckers, and a cookbook. One section of the fields was thick with chrysanthemums and asters, huge mounds of flowers, all for sale if you wanted to dig them. We did not. 

This time the girls stayed awake for the trip home, probably due to the sugariness of that final bag of donuts we bought on our way out. Another fun day ending but looking forward to a pizza dinner and home's night routine again.  Tomorrow parents return, so this is our last night to have them all to ourselves for bedtime stories punctuated with hugs and kisses.