I do have pictures to post of our Thanksgiving weekend here in Wisconsin, with honored guests, Grammy and Grandpa.
It's a good thing Grammy and Grandpa were here! Greg and I were not feeling well, so it was a lucky break to have some extra help around. (Parents can't get sick at the same time! Isn't there some kind of rule about that?)
Grammy and Mary got right to work Thursday morning.
Things of note in the above picture: (1) adorable apron Teresa made for me a couple of years ago, (2) adorable apron "le" made for Mary just in time for this year's holiday cooking, and (3) iPa in the background doing his iPa thing. Thing not of note: (1) the living room still "under construction."
This is what went inside our turkey: apples, celery, onion, orange, carrots, olive oil. Oh, it smelled divine.
Thus concludes all pictures of food. But, trust me, it was a lovely (and delicious) feast. My friend Skye and her daughter joined us. And, as luck would have it, just the day before Thanksgiving, we discovered Greg has a second-cousin here in Madison! She and her husband kindly accepted the invitation to join us. Thanksgiving just isn't the same without people you're barely related to! And I mean that in a genuinely good way. It was great to hang out with them, and we look forward to getting to know them even better.
Thanksgiving picture: Mikhel, Desirae, Baby Boy, Greg, me (the smiley face mask is for your own protection), Grammy, and Grandpa.
The day after Thanksgiving (after pie for breakfast), Greg and his dad painted the kitchen for me. We kept it the same color--but it really needed a fresh coat. The work went so fast with all of the help. (A huge thank you to Greg's dad, who did tons of other stuff for us too, like installing an outlet and pruning our trees.)
David got to help too.
Grammy and I decided to take a quick visit to the Children's Museum. It was a figurative zoo, as expected. For every two-year-old, there were four adults (2 parents and 2 grandparents). Tight quarters. But it was fun to get out of the house--and the drive to the museum gives you a great view of the isthmus, the lakes, the capitol, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Monona Terrace. Here are some obligatory pictures of our museum fun.
An interesting observation I made: David had a FABULOUS time. He thrives off chaos. He had much more fun fighting the crowds than the last time we went when we had the museum almost to ourselves. (Mary is more like me. If it gets too chaotic, she starts to shut down.)
Later that day, while the men and children hung Christmas lights, Greg's mom and I snuck away for a quick visit to the Paoli Schoolhouse Shops.
Saturday morning we ventured downtown to the capitol. It was cold, in case you were wondering.
We admired the dome.
And posed for some pictures.
We also resolved an important debate. The gold statue on top of the capitol? Liberty? Justice? Or Angel Moroni? (The last one was David's idea.) Well, we were all wrong.It's a lady named Wisconsin (go figure) with a giant badger on her head.
With that matter settled, we bundled up to return into the cold for a walk all the way down State Street to the Memorial Union on campus.
This picture was taken behind Memorial Union.
Inside Memorial Union we had hot cocoa, Cracker Jacks, and Cheetos.
Later that afternoon David and Mary INSISTED on taking Grammy and Grandpa bowling. This was extremely important to them. And a very Wisconsin thing to do. Everyone had a ball! And some spares too! (Mary continues to be astonishingly good at bowling.)
We also began putting up our Christmas decorations over the Thanksgiving weekend. It is something that Mary has been integrally involved with.
David may have insisted on placing a dead cat on the top of my tree. But Mary has been grouping all of my ornaments by theme. (For example, she puts all the snowflakes on one branch, all the Santas on another branch, etc.) She is also constantly rearranging the nativities into a single straight line. (I prefer them staggered a bit.) Oh, but isn't she cute with that poof of hair on top and surprised look on her face?
(Anybody spot iPa?)
Finally, a visit with Grammy wouldn't be complete without making cookies.
We felt especially blessed this year over the Thanksgiving holiday. For so very many reasons.
