thanksgiving and hanukah

...and here we are a whole week into December already.

Thanksgiving was lovely; we had dinner here with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Liz, Aunt Sara, Uncle Dan, and Ezra, Aunt Sara's mother and brother, and Omi, who decided not to accompany Opa on a business trip to Europe and joined us instead. Despite some turkey-roasting mysteriousness (very odd thermometer readings; time for a new battery, apparently), everything worked out very well in the end, thanks in large part to much help in the kitchen from Omi and Aunt Liz, several dishes brought over by Grandma, and Uncle Dan's first (scrumptious) pie. We all hung out over the next couple of days, digesting. It was a nice time.

I also got an early Christmas present-- a sewing machine (-: I'm looking forward to making new curtains for Sam's room and a little pillow out of one of Frida's early dresses... though it's been many years since I've operated a sewing machine. I think I've done so since 8th grade home ec, but I can't be sure about that...

Just a couple of days (and a Mary Poppins sing-a-long) later, it was the first night of Hanukah. We managed to light the candles every night but one this year, and now Sam and I kinda-sorta know the prayers. We weren't very good about recording gift-opening in photos, but Sam is newly awash in construction toys (legos from G'ma and G'pa, a keva-plank-based ball course kit from his aunts and uncle, and k'nex robot kits from us), and Frida has new stacking toys and shoes, among other things.

We've spent the last few days in various stages and varieties of virus affliction-- stomach flu, brought home from Frida's daycare classroom, then colds for both me and F.-- so I've missed three days of work this week. Yesterday, though, when it was clear that post-barf Sam felt fine, but it was too late in the day for it to be worth going to school, we had a nice relaxed couple of hours running errands together before his last Math Circle of the year. He emptied out the charity box he's been depositing one of four weekly allowance quarters into and we bought some art supplies and dropped them off at a Toys for Tots box (along with some other gifts). We also bought some stationery supplies, and he noted that both the boxed cards of ancient Buddhist art and the cards of Inuit art look "myth-ish". As for Math Circle: Sam now has an understanding of factors and prime numbers (though in the car afterwards I had to clarify that it's Prime and not Crime numbers...), and both J. and I have been finding the class fun to sit through as well-- I have a hard time focusing on the work I bring with me if it's my turn to be there.

Frida's new favorite things to do are climbing on top of the one dining chair that has rungs underneath, and drawing with markers. To do the first, she steps up on the rung and then hauls herself the rest of the way with arms and knees, then stands up proudly. Once she figures out that she can actually *push* the chair to any higher surface she'd like to reach, life as we know it will be over. All of the kid markers we have in the house are washable, though we're not anxious to test exactly *how* washable they are. So for now she is fairly strictly supervised, and sits for many minutes at the little table that used to be Sam's "desk", and which he's now graciously sharing, making marks on paper with markers. She favors brown, which shouldn't be surprising given how much of her clothing is that color...

Frida is also getting increasingly good at making herself understood. Tonight, delaying bedtime, she signed "eat", and then said "wooo", meaning that she wanted cheerios (which she got and happily nibbled). She roars like a lion, beats her chest like a gorilla, and reports that dogs say "wfff", owls say "hoo hoo", cows say "mmmm" and roosters say "doo-doo". Most of her consonants are alveolar, heavily favoring "d" and "n" sounds: she calls me "Na-na" and balls "daww"; doggies, duckies, and Daddy all sound kind of like "Dah-dee!", but with differential levels of enthusiasm. (Daddy rates the highest, of course... in fact, when she had the barfing flu, she wanted to be held by J. all night and walked around, wanting me only for milk access and actively rejecting me the rest of the time. Our kids apparently read Freud. Far from minding, I gratefully rolled over and slept, knowing that there would be a day shift to follow.)

We're headed to MN and arctic weather in just over ten days, looking forward to Christmas with Omi and Opa, and to playing in the snow, but not so much to the single-digit temperatures. Here's hoping it warms up a bit before then.

Some deep thoughts to close: Tonight at dinner Sam first mused that he "can't imagine there being no me." And a little while later said, "You never die in dreams."

Pictures next time, I promise!