Trimming the tree

We didn't get the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving this year, but since Thanksgiving was so early this year, we were able to wait a week and still trim the tree before the start of December. Owen helped pick out a beautiful tree at Eastern Market, and Nora reassured me that despite what some may say, it really does have a lot of lights ;-)


(click here for all the pictures)

Brew in the Zoo Two -- Electric Boogaloo

Last year, John, Katherine and Allen had such an amazing time at the National Zoo's Brew Lights, that I went ahead and bought tickets for their summer version, thinking that Uncle L would also enjoy it, particularly if it wasn't 30 degrees. Alas, John had his surgery and so we ended up giving the tickets away.

Fortunately, John had recovered in time for this years Brew Lights, so I bought four more tickets thinking we could give Uncle L some hand warmers and he'd be fine. But then John ended up staying in Iowa for an extra week after Thanksgiving so he couldn't go. And Uncle L had to be at work at 4:30 the next morning and didn't think an extensive beer tasting the night before was a great idea. And then Katherine had a business meeting that was also going to conflict.

I was indignant -- we were not giving these tickets away again! But what were we to do? Molly and Adam had to work and none of my Facebook friends offered to step up.

Enter Mom Mom and Grandpa Don. The former offered to watch the kids while the latter offered to join us. We had a wonderful time (though maybe not quite as wonderful as they'd had the previous year without Katherine there to egg us on to try all the stations...) and thoroughly enjoyed both the brews and the lights.

Though I'm still debating if I'm going to buy any more tickets ever.



(To see all the pictures, click here.)

Thanksgiving 2018

Thanksgiving was in Iowa this year, which meant we had to squeeze a lot into a short amount of time. Initially, we thought we'd need to spread the drive into two days owing to a storm heading east. But the weather gods were kind and we managed to make it in one day with only a few rest stops (and one beer stop when we dropped John off at Ken & Helen's).

Arriving Saturday night, we pretty much crashed on Sunday (though the boys did get in a sledding expedition at the Pond). On Monday, Nora, annoyed that due to her absorption in Harry Potter she'd missed the sledding invite, got in a few runs with Daddy before we were visited by Uncle Bernie (who we yet again neglected to get a picture with), after which we managed to fin it a play date at Leanna's with Grace & Grant, followed by dinner at Ken & Helen's with all the Fawcetts present. Tuesday we headed to the mall where we enjoyed the Coral Ridge food court, followed by a viewing of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, ice-skating, the Coral Ridge food court desert round and then a Mexican fiesta with Grandpa & Grandma Z.



Wednesday, the rest of the family started to arrive which meant that the preparation, eating, cousin time and film production portion of the holiday began in earnest. This year in lieu of plays, the kids have decided to create short movies which they then edit before their premier. I cannot tell you how much this approach has improved our enjoyment of the next generation's love of theater, but that's ok because now you too can experience Island Adventure, U2's Dad, and Sponsored by LaCroix (Not Really) from the comfort of your own home.

After a lovely Thanksgiving meal and post-meal snacking, we left Friday morning and headed to Pittsburgh to hang out with the Mettenburgs. It was arguably our best visit ever -- lots of games, lots of good food, no one got sick and we actually made it out of the driveway on our first attempt -- until we got home and realized that we'd stolen Hugh's winter coat (happy birthday, little guy) and left some coats of our own. Maybe next time...



(To see all the pictures, please click here.)