Thanksgiving and Birthdays

When we were kids, my sister and I often joined birthday celebrations with a splash of Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas mixed in--so why not go retro with this post and combine these things again? :) I began my Thanksgiving day in a slow way with some hot apple cider and the parade on TV. Look, there's Bluey!

After a solid hour or two waking up, I noticed Buck started with some turkey prep and decided I should not while away the entire morning. I needed to clean the house--dust, defur, repeat--before company arrived, but we put that at 6 p.m. so there wasn't a huge rush. I did a solid job cleaning the downstairs, which probably no one visits, but I could still watch the parade :) I also worked on a project I saw online--cute little paint marker window villages! They don't work well on double-paned glass, as both Caelan and I discovered when we tried to decorate our respective windows. Much freehand creativity took place. Our little neighbor girl watched the progress or maybe the parade or maybe just wanted to stare into our windows for a very long time . . . Daisy stared back :) Here's me looking at you, looking at me, looking at Daisy, looking at you, looking at me--and 'round it goes! She did notice I forgot to cross off a window pane in the village, so I fixed that for her viewing enjoyment. The windows were very drippy (I've since adjusted the household humidity level), so the paint pen didn't stick the best--but I think overall, given my lack of artistic ability in the drawing category, the whimsical effect is pretty cute!

Later in the day, I got the upstairs sorted and helped with sides to the smoked Thanksgiving turkey centerpiece, which was very tasty and contributed to one SALTY gravy! My brother and family arrived around the same time Chase and Gabby did (they enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch with Chase's fam earlier in the day), K brought her grandma's strawberry cool whip salad and Gabby made a pretty apple pie!

My brother quizzed the kids on their current life stories and left behind a Coke Zero--so we can be prepared the next time he comes over, perhaps :) Mr. M came prepared for football card trades and disappeared into G$'s room to make some deals that made his eyes shine! Baby H motored around pretty happily even after a busy day with family at her first Thanksgiving celebration of the day. The dogs were a bit much for her, but they are often a bit much for us too--mostly the little one. I think we broke her, lol--Caelan and Noah come back!! :) Needless to say, they had a "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" thing going most of the evening, peeking through the sliding glass door wondering why they weren't invited to create chaos in the calm :)

Before they left, Dr. Aunt K took the first medical look at G$'s finger--which was beginning to hurt. She recommended a salt soak, which G$ listened to, and on his own soaked every other day until the pain stopped. It is mostly healed to a really, really (really) short nail on his ring finger. Yay for Aunt K! (I guess neither of her big brothers could look at it when the injury happened :) Praise God for sparing his fingertip!

Noah and Caelan traveled to Wisconsin to visit his mom's side of the family for the holiday. Noah's youngest sister joined them and her parents, and celebrated her birthday with coffee and shopping and a special meal out. It's been pretty easy to "share" the newlyweds, they've all done a good job of finding ways to enjoy time with all the families!

So much happening, my birthday appeared on the calendar to kick off a month full of family birthdays, and Jesus's, so you know, best month to have a birthday :) Both boys were out the door before I was out of bed; Buck was around for a bit in the morning and joined me for breakfast. When he headed out, I started laundry and my own work day--which was happily interrupted by birthday greetings from as far away as Rwanda and Guam! I think Noah was officially the first with a video message, which was so sweet of him! My calls went well, mostly 10s, and I had just shut it down for the day when Gabby and Chase arrived. She had texted "tomorrow," so I wasn't expecting them "today." It was a good surprise! They gifted me the cutest bird lights (picture below) which we were happy to discover came pre-charged so we could play with them, heehee :) They also have a spot for essential oils, so the bright birds can smell good, too! So clever!

Gabby set up a Zoom call with Caelan, and we got to talk through all the plans for their visit (which is next week!!), Christmas, and graduation (which we really should try to lock down a few more plans for--oh gosh, I never set up the online invitation!) BRB.

Okay! Got that bit of importantness taken care of! Since we're on the topic of invites, when Graysen came home for lunch he asked me if I was doing anything that evening, and when I said I didn't have any plans, he invited me to dinner at a steakhouse--his treat :) How very thoughtful of him! Brennen joined us and they kept up a conversation the whole time . . . they are pretty funny guys, as you can see from the one and only photo of our evening out together :)

Graysen drove, because I do not like driving at night, but we took the van instead of his car or the truck. When we returned home, they brought me gifts to open--adorable ruffled socks from G$ and a heated back massager that can connect to an office chair from Brennen; both off of my wish list, so just what I wanted! :) I expected them to disappear to their rooms to play video games, but they totally surprised me again when Brennen invited me to choose a puzzle--and then we built the WHOLE thing (it was 500 pieces featuring Frankenmuth) while Graysen sat on the couch and we listened to Christmas music. What a special evening! 

Each year my sister and I exchange "homemade" gifts that are generally both funny and useful. She recalled my run-in with the museum security guard and sent me a kit to keep me out of trouble in the art museum. I'm sure laser pointers at the valuable artworks are much more acceptable than my finger hovering too close, LOL! Practically perfect in every way + chocolates! Very thoughtful :)

Here is a sister gift from a couple of years ago! We decorated the classroom as a farm (I think) that year, and Buck's mom's picture became the Hootenanny Granny sweatshirt you see before you. Brennen talked it up so much at his college group that they insisted he wear it to group. He says it's super comfortable and since he's short on sweatshirts the timing was pretty great!

In preparation for my sister's trio of birthdays, I sorted out some puzzle pieces to give my niece a head start on her building process. Maybe she's thinking edges, maybe she's thinking barns (I like building buildings), maybe she's thinking horses (there are A LOT of those in this box), maybe she's thinking mountains--she can choose her bag o' pieces and just build that. I hope it makes building lots of fun! I did a little personalization of my nephew's gift, too, but as his birthday is still a bit farther down the calendar, I didn't take any spoiler alert pictures before sending the boxes (which, by the way, are running four days, late--FOUR, lamesauce).

My sister's gift is a little throwback to our childhood. We both had these thumb-sucking monkey (?) dolls when we were small. I don't know where the originals ended up, but when I saw they were making a comeback, I ordered one! They made for a wonderful little topic of conversation while I was at the hospital with my friend and her son, when Graysen and I visited several weeks ago. Of course, that was before my sis and her family embarked on the renovation of an entire antique house in the town where her youngests go to school. I thought Miss Monchhichi should come ready to help with a little bucket, a roll of painter's tape, a brush, and a home design magazine. I'm sure the projects will just fly by with ease now that they have so much extra help! Heehee :) (Update: she opened the gift today and had no nostalgic recollection to the monkey doll at all! Nor did my brother or my mom. What?! :)

Although Buck's work schedule is crazy intense this month, his boss told him he didn't have to work his half day last week, which meant he got two whole days off in a row! Our accomplishing list had a few must-do's on it--so Buck began with a sparkly green drink from the new coffee kiosk near us . . . he said it was delicious, and he hasn't turned into the Hulk yet, so I will take his word for it :) I was boring and got a peppermint hot chocolate, no mysterious silver-green sparkles!

These two crazies needed a toenail trim, it had been four months for Olive and two for Daisy. They were so excited to leave the house that they were mostly bonkers at the vet clinic. We've talked about going to a pet store or something, because it is a fraction of the cost, but Olive's nails tend to break and she had one bleeding last week, so I thought it would be better to take them to the vet this time--plus we bought a grinder tool on sale, so hopefully with a fresh trim we can now maintain their nails . . . and never pay $50 (gasp!!!) for two nail trims again!

Our other errands aren't very interesting, so I'll skip ahead to the evening. The next theater event on my holiday wish list--Peter Pan! We streamlined the experience and reserved parking, found a spot near the ramp exit facing out, walked across the way for dinner in a cute little spot, and then wandered to the theater without needing coats, well, maybe Buck had a coat. I had my white sweater (sauce stains scrubbed out, hooray!) and a scarf to keep me cozy.

Our seats were better than I expected and the show proved fun. The cast was very young and they modernized the classic tale a bit too much (Wendy making viral videos in the nursery), but the vocals and visuals were good, the shadow chasing bit very cute, and dancing very energetic. As it was a bit of a mash-up of Hook and Peter Pan, Tink was a wee jerk. The very non-theater-attending looking guy sitting next to me, I did not expect to return after the intermission. Yet, he did! Soon, Tink drank poison to save Peter and it was up to the crowd to save her by clapping. His gf noticed he wasn't participating and instructed him to join in. I texted Caelan, "If Tink's survival depend on that guy, she never would have made it." Ha! He wasn't a very enthusiastic clapper :)

We made it home ahead of the crowds and the vase of white flowers Buck bought me looked very pretty on the table! He also gifted me the Wonka movie, a children's book I've had on my wish list for a very long time, and some stick-on tile for the fireplace to spruce it up a little :)

It was a good birthday and I'm thankful for my people; they made it special for me and I appreciate that 💕