Thanksgiving 2025

I'm thankful for this girl and she is thankful for homemade pretzels. She went from never having a soft pretzel a few months ago to soft pretzels biggest fan.

 

I'm thankful for our new garage door. It has no dents, no scuffs, isn't bent or cracked, and doesn't sound like a witch got caught in it.

One night I showed the kids the lost art of tracing silhouettes. In the days of yore, these were self portraits and something to do on a dark winter night, I explained. Then the kids filled the outline with all the things they were thankful for.

Erica has outgrown all her dolls and the clothes and accessories and triple bunkbeds that went with them. She thought long and hard about which little girl would appreciate it. She decided to give it all to 5-year-old Maggie who is in our ward and is her friend's little sister. So Ellie came over the day before Thanksgiving and they wrapped it all up and carried it to Ellie's house.

They tried to balance it on a scooter but realized it was faster to just walk the 2.5 blocks to Ellie's house. I hope Maggie loves it.

I'm thankful for this kid. He's the only person I took a picture of on Thanksgiving day.

The other picture is of my food. I could go for another roll about now.

I was a little bummed going into Thanksgiving this year since we were going to be a smaller group and only the sisters that I see all the time and their families were going to make it. (That sounds rude but the best part about holidays is seeing people you haven't seen in awhile and I didn't want to wait 2 more years to spend Thanksgiving with these absent people). Wednesday my oldest sister made my day by telling me she and two of her kids were coming after all! I could have cried with joy. Then on Thanksgiving after dinner my brother and his wife surprised us all by walking in the door! They had just flown back from Arizona and were looking for a warm meal (they had their Thanksgiving dinner with my sister-in-law's mother the day before). It went from being a regular ol' Thanksgiving to one of miracles!

Friday Justin and I went on a shopping spree to Costco. Costco the day after Thanksgiving is like Costco on a Saturday: not especially busy since they don't do black Friday sales. We picked out gifts for all of Justin's office since we are in charge of his work party this year. There's a bit of pressure to pick out stuff that people would actually want but also fun to spend other people's money.

Saturday morning we drove to the mountains to cut down a Christmas tree. No snow, no coat, no sledding. It was a strange tree hunt. Half the fun is climbing up the mountainside in knee deep snow and then shaking the snow off trees to see if they are contenders. But not this year. It was strangely cool but not cold.

It still took us a little while to find a good shaped tree that was tall enough. It took Justin less than a minute to cut it down.

Isn't it pretty?

Back at tree camp we had hot chocolate and cold doughnuts.

Erica was running a fever so she isolated in the truck so as to not get her little cousins sick.

She had a great view bb gun shooting.

Most of all I am thankful for this crew, my peeps, my nerds.

I spent almost 2 hours Saturday afternoon stringing the lights. I don't know if I'm just too picky about how they are strung or just not very good at it but it takes me forever. This evening we put ornaments on the tree. My kids are better ornament hangers now that they are older (spread them out, use hooks, don't drop them) but they don't get excited about it and I miss that. Poor Erica was running a fever but still a good sport.

2025 v 2022  

Fall and a very big home improvement

Sarah's swim season is in full swing. Or should I say "full stroke?" She's had two meets so far.

She gets pretty nervous but at her second meet this week she did better than she thought she would, even placing second in her heat and beating her previous backstroke time by 10 seconds. 

Here are some pretty fall colors I captured while walking.

 

And one of our friendly neighborhood deer. I got so close to it before it bounded away.

Erica watching for her friend to come over. I hope I can always remember her at 11. She has grown so much this year with finishing elementary school and starting middle school. There have been some hard adjustments with friends and getting used to seven classes and seven teachers (a couple of classes and teachers she does not like). But in spite of all that, she is still so sweet and kind and goodhearted.

A couple of weeks ago Justin and I were going to get tacos and we saw her and her friend on the front lawn of a house that we don't know. I asked her about it at bedtime and our conversation went like this:

Me: I saw you at the red brick house. What were you doing there?

Erica: Playing with puppies

Me: Do you know the owners?

Erica: No. They are for sale so we knocked. It makes sense they would let us play with them. Are you thinking about buying one?

Me: (not thinking about it) How much are they?

Erica: $550. It's not even $1000!

Me: What kind of dogs are they?

Erica: They are......little puppies!!

And in the biggest house news since we the new patio....We got new windows! The very first thing Justin noticed about the house when we first saw it was that it needed new windows. We have 30 windows and all but 5 were broken or dysfunctional in some way: 4 had broken glass, 4 didn't stay up, most were foggy, several were scratched, 2 didn't close tightly and had a constant stream of outside air, ALL got frosty in the wintertime and standing at a window felt like standing in front of the open fridge. And I highly doubt the latches could keep anyone out. The windows always made me feel a bit anxious about heating and cooling costs, mold, safety, and their constant dirtiness no matter how often I cleaned them. But you can buy like a ton of other stuff and go on trips for the cost of windows so it kept getting bumped down our budget list. 

Until now! 

Before:

After:

Before and after

Before

I have to say I like the way they look inside looking out more than the exterior view. The white is so white which draws attention to the drab faded paint. 

Before and after. Goodbye pie slices.

Before (yes, that's broken glass) 

After

Before and after. Goodbye grids.

Before

After (I didn't think they had put the new window in at first. I thought it was still empty.)

Before 

After (now I can see perfectly how dirty my window wells are)

I didn't get a before picture of my bathroom windows but look! I get really distracted by the view. 

I almost feel like I'm discovering what's outside the house all over again.

We still have 11 more windows to be done in December (kitchen, dining room, Sarah's, and Henry's bedrooms, bathroom) but the house already feels so much better. In fact, the way they improve the feel of the house is more beneficial than the way they look or improved the view. I don't feel air seeping in and out; everything feels shut up tight. The house feels quieter since they insulate from noise too. I don't feel like the furniture and floors are baking in the harsh sunlight. No more cobwebs and dead bugs piling up in the tracks. I can sit near a window without it feeling drafty. It feels like a new house and I feel better inside.

Next is a new garage door since our current one is cracked and may fall off the track at any time.

James turns 9

 My oldest and youngest having birthdays two weeks apart makes for an emotional two weeks. James turned 9! We started the morning with crepes for breakfast and opening presents.

He got a flag football set, legos, a maze cube

And lots and lots of snacks.

Erica got him a giraffe palm pal, Henry gave him his shoshibo cube and Sarah gave him cosmic brownies.

He couldn't decide what he wanted to do for his birthday until a couple of days before. "I just want to play outside with my friends." It wasn't his year for a friend party but if all I had to do was buy gatorade and order pizza, we'll invite friends over. I picked them all up from school (the loudest car rider ever) and they promptly went to the backyard and played.

Here was James's plan.

Then they came in so James could open presents. Such nice moms to get a gift on short notice.

My chocolate-loving kid wanted chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. You got it.

We sure love this boy!

9 Things about 9-year-old James

1. He loves Legos. He got two sets for his birthday and that's all he wants for Christmas.

2. He is pretty witty. He can throw out a mild burn with the wit and confidence of someone twice his age.

3. He will just about any book I bring home from the library for him. He's a fast reader too! Pretty sure he stays up later than me reading.

4. He is pleasant and easy-going 80% of the time. 5% grumpy and whiny, 5% spazzy and obnoxious.

5. He's good with numbers. I live in a house of human calculators and it is so convenient when cooking dinner and scaling the recipe and I can call out "What's 2/3 of 150 grams?" and get a chorus of correct answers.

6. He goes from playing with all his friends all day and that's all he cares about to the next day hibernating in his room with Legos.

7. The only places he wants to go are the doughnut store, Chick-fil-a.....that's it.

8. He wakes up at 7 every morning and watches TV until it's time to get ready for school. He gets dressed, makes his lunch, practices the piano and then rides to school with his friend Calvin. He rarely eats breakfast.

9. He doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up but he really likes building things and he's not afraid of heights.