Giving Thanks

We had an absolutely beautiful Thanksgiving Weekend.  The middle of November got really really cold up here but by Thanksgiving our valley warmed up and things were just lovely.

The holiday began for us on Wednesday.  Not only did Peter and crew come up from St. George that evening, but we had a day off of school.  This hardly seems worth mentioning except that I was really excited about that.  I'm just going to say that our school-day afternoons lately have been homework-packed from 3:30 - 9:00.  With three kids needing homework guidance and two kids needing practicing guidance and one of those kids being in fourth grade (that's turning out to be a pretty serious homework year in our neighborhood) I have felt like I have been trying to sprint through deep sand.

This was my family's year to gather and we decided to skip the traditional hanging out all day while we all cook like crazy and then sit down to eat and then feel sleepy for the rest of the day.  I really actually like that tradition, but this was not the year for it.  We began by gathering at my house in the morning and then walking to the school playground to join in the neighborhood football game.  This was so fun.  I sat with my mom and baby Iva while everyone else played, including my dad.  I know he was sore for a few days afterwards, but it was so fun to see him happily playing with everyone.

Sheri ran around in boots because nothing scares this woman

Next came our feast.  I know that most people eat their Thanksgiving turkeys in the afternoon or evening, but when you forget to make your restaurant reservation until 2 weeks before (I guess you need to call a month in advance to get a 2:00 table) you end up with either 11:00 a.m. or 7:00 p.m.  We went with the 11:00 time and it was great.  We once again chose to go to Bucca di Beppo - why wouldn't we want to get Italian food on Thanksgiving?  The reason we picked that fare is because Bucca serves both their full Italian menu as well as traditional platters of turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.  The funny thing is....no one in my entire family wanted Thanksgiving dinner!

We all arrived at the restaurant and got seated at one giant round table which sported the bust of Pope John Paul III in the center.  The kids were a little weirded out by that....as well as some of the replicas of Italian art....which include some very bare-breasted maidens....

What can I say?  She couldn't help herself.

ANYWHOOO.....my daughter is going to hate me some day for posting that but...I just couldn't help it.  So we gathered around the table and all anyone wanted to eat was fried calamari and chicken marsala and ravioli.  So that's what we got!  It was awesome.

It was awesome that is until poor little Siena, who had been looking slightly green and only nibbled at a little bread decided to regurgitate upon the floor.  Poor baby.  She felt awful all that day and most of the rest of the next...she described it as The Worst Thanksgiving Ever and I told her that everyone has one of those in their lives.  Mine was in college when I had the worst case of the flu I've ever had and still had to work until 10:00 the night before.  So that kind of put a damper on the feast, but we were almost done anyway.  We got a lot of help from the staff in cleaning up and left a very big tip indeed.

After dinner we drove to Memory Grove to go for a walk together.  We enjoyed a nice stroll with lots of stopping along the way to chat with friends we bumped into and let my niece Kate's little rabbit Howell sniff things and nibble grass.

After all that hearty exercise we were starving!  Okay, maybe it wasn't that hearty and maybe we only just barely had enough room for pie, but that was reason enough to head home and eat up some yummy apple-cheese pie courtesy of my sister and some pumpkin cheesecake I made that was not pretty but was delicious.  We watched Singing in the Rain and snuggled up and made our feast last until the late evening.  That was when everyone headed home and Sheri talked me into joining her in a crazy black-friday 10pm run to Target, which was actually pretty fun.

I loved spending the whole day with my family and hope we make this kind of day of outings a regular tradition.

Ladies!

When my friend Charisse asked who might be available for the 2nd annual Girls Weekend St. George GetAway, I think I was probably the first one to reply with a resounding YES MA'AM me me me!!  Funny, last November after our girls trip we had so much fun we decided we should try to pull it off every few months....but as it turns out that is just not possible.  We can barely get it together just once a year!  But I am going to go ahead and say it's well worth the effort.  This is such a great group of women whom I'm proud to know and call friends.  A couple people came this year who couldn't last year, which was nice, even though there were one or two attendees last year who couldn't make it this time. They were missed.

That Thursday that we left was such a stressful day - I had to work that day, and I tried to do a bunch of cooking and cleaning plus packing.  No, I definitely could not have done these things in advance....because....that would go against my procrastinating nature.  Ahem.  Anyway, stressful day on Thursday.  So when Charisse came to pick me up it felt even more relieving and restful than ever to just hop in the car, lean back and head on out of town.  We had been having some really cold weather up here in Salt Lake, so heading south felt just, you know, fabulous.

You don't need all the details.  I'll just say that a couple of days in the desert, complete with great food, darling friends, a temple trip, movies, walks, sleeping in, hanging in the hot tub, shopping and perhaps a pedicure were just the ticket for a very spoiled weekend.  Thank you Troy.

Swig.  I think we only went four times in three days.

Celebration of Stomper

Well, this is slightly overdue. But you know, the way I look at it is that Stomper was due in early December but arrived in late October so it seems appropriate for me to write about his birthday when it was actually supposed to happen.....right?

October and all its many events culminated in the celebration of one seriously terrific young man. My Stomper had a very important birthday on the 28th - he turned 12. Sheesh I can hardly believe that. His last year before officially entering the realm of the teenager. This is a big deal birthday partly because it's the last birthday before junior high school, the oldest you'll get in elementary school, the time when you graduate from primary (the kids group in our church) to the young men's program (the teenage boys group in our church) and the time when young men are ordained to the priesthood. These are important things and big deals.

We started the celebration with a party. I need to say.....I kind of hate throwing birthday parties. They are very messy. And expensive. Even if you try your hardest to keep a lid on things, somehow you get party-creep and it gets bigger than you ever meant it to be. Trying to find that balance between too many activities and too few. They're just hard. So I was thrilled when Stomper decided he wanted to take a group of friends to a trampoline-warehouse-park-party-place. (I don't know the official name of those places.) It was so awesome. I didn't have to hang up a single streamer. Not one single balloon. We just piled into a couple of cars, drove to the trampoline park (for the record, it was Lowe's Xtreme Air Sports in Provo, Utah), got out, paid for our tickets and went and jumped for two hours. The kids had a ball. I love that everyone from the 13 year old big kids to little Skippidy who's just 5 all tumble and jump and flop and leap and flip and just love it. I was a little nervous about personal injury but was able to squelch that feeling pretty well.

After the trampoline place we drove to a near by park to eat cheap pizza and enjoyed an absolutely gorgeous afternoon. We have learned the key to hosting successful outdoor birthday parties for Stomper. Do them before his birthday. Somehow that simple rule has proven to be true - birthday parties before October 28th are sunny and warm and birthday parties after October 28th are cold and rainy. Anyway, the day was lovely. We were at a park. We had pizza and presents and a football and a cake that I baked in a big giant rectangle, no theme-cakes this year, hurrah!!

I'm going to go ahead a call it a success.

A week later after Stomper's actual birthday - on which he blessedly asked for his school treat to be a package of chocolates, not homemade cupcakes or $30 in donuts or anything, hurrah - we celebrated his ordination to the priesthood, which is an important step in our faith. We were able to enjoy the company of family for the weekend (thank you Peter and Sheri for showing up to everything always) as well as Troy's entire family joining us on Sunday for the occasion and supper afterwards. I felt really proud to see Stomper join his Young Men's group with optimism and excitement.

I am so grateful to have Stomper. I can hardly believe my wee little preemie baby who once upon a time couldn't sleep unless he was burrowed into my chest is now this tall kiddo who is loving his scout program, buddies at school, exploring social media on Instagram (I love following him!) and Captain America. He is so fun to hang out with and be super hero fans together with and eat sushi with. I love this man.