Baby, It's Cold Outside

So it's been unseasonably warm since the freak snow we got on October 15th. But of course, if we're going to go stand in line at Target at 4AM, it's a great day for a cold snap.

Better yet, if we're going to go sit in town square to listen to Kairi play carols and watch them turn on the Christmas lights, it should be cold and WINDY.

Brrr..... maybe we SHOULD move to Australia!

Thanksgiving

I've been racking my brain trying to think about how to write about this Thanksgiving, but in the end I decided to go with truthful, but not rude.

This year, it was a bit hard to face this holiday. Finding things to be thankful for was a challenge. Barry and Cyndy were separated in August, causing some stress through both their family and ours. Then Cyndy spent most of Monday of this very week in the hospital, causing Jenn's Mom to come down on Tuesday, only to leave on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Jenn was having problems with a student in one of her classes and I had been transferred to a new department at my work in June right before vacation, after spending the past 8 years with the same team leader and group of people. My mom was having back problems, causing her have to use a walker and also to get bi-weekly steroid injections.

With all of the flux going on with family, we didn't know how many people were going to appear. We were assuming at least 9, and as many as 11, so we prepared a lot of food. It turns out the only people who actually came for dinner were my parents. Barry, Faith, and Juli stopped over for dessert and watched part of the Cowboys game. Cyndy never made it over.

The food was great (especially the stuffing and pie), and we enjoyed seeing everyone who came. But it was far from a perfect Thanksgiving. In the end, we did have things to be thankful for. We were thankful that in the tough economic times that Jenn and I both have employment, and were able to have such a nice meal. We were thankful to see my parents and Barry and the girls. And we were thankful that Cyndy was getting well after her medical emergency.

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving

Wednesday night, there is a tradition in our house where we start getting ready for Thanksgiving. The house was cleaned, the radio was tuned to Delilah (who starts playing Christmas songs this very night) and then we started on food.

The dill dip was made (and we decided that although fresh herbs are great, dried dill works better for the dip). I did the cranberry sauce solo this year, which was a first for me. It wasn't difficult, actually, once, and I will be happy to do it from now on.

Jenn worked on the sweet potato casserole. The potatoes were thrown in the oven to bake. We learned this year that we should put a pan under the potatoes so they don't leak and mess up the bottom of the oven.

Finally, we made pies. I always make the pumpkin filling and Jenn makes the crusts and apple pie filling. We almost didn't have pumpkin pie this year due to a pumpkin shortage (bad weather in Illinois, or something). Fortunately for us, I think we found the last cans of pumpkin in the Valley. :)

Jenn's pie crusts were perhaps the best she ever made them. The apple pie filling was made with two types of apples (Golden Delicious and McIntosh). Jenn even went as far as evenly distributing the apple slices in the pie instead of just dumping them into the crust. As it turned out, this worked very well because it filled the pie and prevent slipping when the pie was cut the next day.

While hosting these types of things can be stressful (especially this year), I still enjoy getting ready when Jenn and I can do it together.

Turkey...for dessert

Jenn and I were scheduled to teach Junior Church on Thanksgiving Sunday, so she decided that the snack that we would bring in should be cupcakes.

But since it's Thanksgiving, we couldn't bring just any cupcakes. So, with the help of Kai, Nick, Faith, and Juli, we made turkey shaped chocolate cupcakes.

They were very adorable, and the decorating was done mostly with icing and candy corns. And, of course, the Boos favorite part was making sure they tasted good after we were done!

A Minor Christmas Catastrophe

We wanted to do something fun with the kids last weekend, but we weren't sure what. Then we stopped for coffee at Dunkin' Donuts and saw flyers advertising Hershey Park's Christmas Candylane. For about $40, all four of us could have access to rides and holiday fun all over the park with the exception of the roller coasters. So we hopped in the car and headed over.

We had tons of festive fun, from the train ride through lighting displays to the strolling bands playing Christmas songs. We also enjoyed some favorite rides like Scrambler, the Kissing Tower, and the Reese's Extreme Cup Challenge. The entire park was wonderfully decorated.
Unfortunately, no sooner did we arrive at the park than my digital camera, which had been dying for weeks, bit the dust. The drive for the lens is completely shot, and the shutter won't open. So I grabbed a tossaway camera with (gasp!) film.

Every picture I took after that point is, well, frankly horrible. I didn't want to spend a fortune to replace the camera right before Christmas, but we needed something. So, for the price of a tossaway film camera plus developing, I bought a digital camera on eBay. I knew it was a downgrade from my old digital. In fact, it's the same model I had for my FIRST digital camera. What I had forgotten was how lousy that camera really was! Still, it will be better than nothing for the holiday season, or until we can afford to get me the camera I really want.

Or maybe Santa will bring me the Canon PowerShot SX20IS with 20X Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.5 Inch Articulating LCD.

Or a pony.

Once More, With Feeling

Thanks to the incompetence of the football team, marching band season is over for the year. The band's final show was at the Northern States Championships. They did a great job, but I think they were more focused on going out for pizza after the show than nailing their scores. Oh, well! You win some, you lose some. And next August, you start all over again!

You Didn't Tell Me You Were Gonna Kill It!

Most of our Halloween festivities were over by the actual day of Halloween. (Thanks so much, Pennsylvania!) We actually ended up spending the day doing various Christmas-y things, like filling the shoeboxes for Operation: Christmas Child, and finding a couple of Christmas presents along the way. So by the evening, we decided we needed to do something more seasonal. Nick had the perfect suggestion - why hadn't we carved our pumpkins yet?

Kairi, on the other hand, had the perfect idea - stay back and watch and let everyone else get their hands covered in pumpkin guts.

With a little help from us...

Nick carved his pumpkin just like he wanted. It's supposed to be just like the one Lucy drew on the back of Charlie Brown's head during the Peanuts Halloween party. Yes, he's a bit obsessed this year.

We turned out the lights, enjoyed the pumpkins, and made shadow animals until bedtime. The other pumpkin? Oh, that was mine. Depending on who you ask, the reason mine was completely carved before Nicky's pumpkin was even hollowed out was either:

A) I have mad pumpkin skills.

B) It was less than 1/3 the size of Nick's.

C) I cheated.

I'll leave you to decide.