Saturday, November 26, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving

I have to say this year, Thanksgiving was a bit unusual, to say the least. The in laws came in like they always do. However, since we'll be moving from the Chicago area this summer, they wanted to do something they haven't done since we've lived here. Their choice was going to the top of the Se@rs Tower observation deck. The only day we had free to to that was on Thanksgiving , and since the tower is open every day of the year, no problem.

MIL, and I got a lot of the dinner prepped the day before, and cooked the turkey breast for 2 hours, since it takes about 3 hours to cook fully.

We headed out first thing in the morning to hop the train to the city. We get all the way down there (more than an hour by train) only to find out that it's so foggy and cloudy, visibility from the deck is ZERO! We went across the street for a cup of coffee, and snacks for the kids, to try to wait it out. After an hour we checked back in. No change. 
We decided it wasn't worth the $100 it would cost for all of us to get up there and see nothing, so we headed back home (another hour long train ride!).

Of course I had the camera with me. This is the only 'sight seeing' we got to do, in the train station...

Holiday display at the Metra station
Once home we started right away on getting dinner ready. We popped that bird back in the oven for its last hour while we made the potatoes and stuffing. The kiddos set the table.
We all sit down while hubby begins carving the bird and it was still raw in the middle! 
Sometimes even the best laid plans don't work out. Thankfully the in laws aren't formal people and we all took it in stride, laughing at all our mishaps of the day.
Nobody went hungry, and we did eventually get to eat some turkey, just not at the same time as the rest of the food! I declared dessert the best part of the meal.
We were all together, so that's the important part, right?

The next day we headed out to the circus. When we checked our tickets, we noticed we were one short. I somehow mis-counted and didn't buy enough tickets. How does this stuff happen to me, all the time?!

Thankfully, we were able to get in by having one of the kiddos sit on Daddy's lap. Phew.

Here's my brave girl Gia with the clowns during the pre-show.



Tia wanted nothing to do with the clowns, preferring to stay close to Daddy.


After the circus we went out for dinner since nobody even wanted to think about that turkey again!

All in all, we had a nice holiday even with all the mishaps and mayhem. I'm sure we'll look back on all this and laugh.
We're together, happy and healthy. For that I am thankful.

We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 14, 2011

The Voice of Reason

I've been having some pretty cool conversations with my kids lately and they remind me that they're growing up. It's cute and scary all at the same time.

Here's one of my favorites...

Tia told me that Daddy told her when she gets older, someone might try to offer her a cigarette, and how she should handle that situation.
Of course me being a crazy animated mom, I said "Oh, if someone tries to give you a cigarette you say 'Eww, gross, are you crazy?! I don't smoke, that's disgusting!'"

Tia remained calm and looked at me with her wise eyes and responded "Or, I could just say 'no thanks', and walk away".


Simple, yet effective.  She's wise beyond her years.