Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a beautiful snowy day and I'm counting my blessings! Tucker woke up this morning at 6:30 before the others, so Evan brought him in to bed with us. He snuggled and talked with us for about twenty minutes before we put him back in his crib. He thought he'd died and gone to heaven having Mommy and Daddy all to himself! Jed woke up a little while later. He was ecstatic to see several inches of snow on the ground and more coming! It's our first big snow of the season. We knew Chloe was awake a few minutes later when we heard her hollering, "Hnow! Hnow!" She and Jed got bundled up as fast as they could and went out to explore. They were probably out there 45 minutes. I had it made fixing breakfast and getting the turkey in the oven while they played outside and Tucker slept.

We've had a happy, leisurely morning. Lindsay came over for a while to watch some of the Macy's parade with us. Evan gagged over the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang song, and we pretty much had to turn off all the other songs, but the kids loved seeing the floats. Evan's now happily ensconced in his office watching football. He's been a wonderful help today giving the kids baths, vacuuming rooms, writing our Christmas letter, and generally being available to corral, discipline, and entertain the troops as needed.

Lindsay is back now for the festivities, and Derrick (a.k.a. Ryusoma to you bloggers) just walked in and Wesley will be here any minute. We'll eat dinner at 3:00.

I think the things at the top of my Thanksgiving list are my precious family, this big beautiful house, good health for all of us, the children's growth and progress, a loving husband...and I could keep going! God has been so good to us.

Chloe has been blossoming in her speech. She is usually able to communicate what's on her mind. But she has a hard time saying S, so H is usually the subsitute letter--hence "hnow" for "snow." She's fun to tease about it. If she says "hink," meaning she wants to wash her hands in the sink, I'll say, "You want to wash your hands in the hink?" "No, hink!" "That's what I said, hink." "NO! HINK!" At that point I have to stop so I don't provoke her to wrath, but it is pretty amusing.

Happy thanksgiving to you all!

The meaning of love

Several days ago I was working at the computer when Jed came up to me and said, "What does 'I love you' mean?" Now I knew he wasn't asking me that because he'd just heard it for the first time and had no clue as to its meaning. We say it a million times a day to each other in our house, so it's a phrase he's very familiar with. But his little five-year-old brain is intensely curious about many things, and he's often asking questions--which is fabulous, but just a tad draining when it's ALL DAY LONG!

Well, when he asked me what "I love you" means, I sensed a special teachable moment. So I stopped what I was doing and gave him my undivided attention (which he doesn't always get when he asks a question, otherwise Mommy would go insane and never get anything accomplished...but I digress). I said something like, "It means I think you're special and you're a gift from God and I'm so glad you came to live with us." I remember that I said more but can't recall exactly what. His response was "Oh!" A second later, "I love you, Mommy!" Awwwww! My heart melted and I pulled him into a big hug. It's moments like this that keep a mom going on the hard days. :-)

It's Sunday night, and Evan and I just finished watching the first half of the new Star Wars movie. My goodness. Talk about fast-paced. I was experiencing sensory overload in the first five minutes. But we're hooked. Being the responsible adults that we are, we're opting to finish the rest another night rather than stay up late and regret it in the morning.

Yesterday we went to the wedding of Evan's cousin Diana Wakeman up in Maine. It was a beautiful wedding, Diana was a gorgeous bride, and the groom (whom we'd never met) looks like a really good, Godly man who knows how to cherish his wife. This was the first wedding I went to that had a disc jockey and dance floor. After the scrumptious three-course meal, the DJ called the bride and groom onto the floor for their dance, then the bride and her dad danced to a tear-jerker of a song called "Daddy's Hands," then the groom and his mother danced. Then the DJ asked all the married couples onto the floor. I was quite pleased at this prospect, as I have secretly longed for just such an opportunity to enjoy with my sweetheart. Evan and I pawned the kids off on the singles around us and happily stepped onto the floor. Imagine our chagrin, though, when we got called off two minutes later! The DJ asked all couples married five years or fewer to step off, then 10 years or fewer, all the way up to the longest-married couple--53 years! We were in the 10 or fewer group. However, after that game everyone who wanted to dance was invited back onto the floor. Evan and I danced to a slow song, then the tempo picked up and we didn't feel comfortable anymore so we stepped off. It was quite amusing to watch some of our old friends--people in their 60s and 70s!--shakin' it up and boogeying. Little did we know that our impressionable little two year old was taking it all in. Tonight as part of our Bible time we started singing "Who Did Swallow Jonah," which is a pretty lively song, when Chloe starts doing the twist! I kid you not. She started shaking her rear and squatting just like she'd seen the people do yesterday. Evan and I laughed and groaned and said it's going to be a long 16 years. :-}

Last weekend my mom was here for a visit--ostensibly to visit her mother, my grandma Sweet, in Peterborough, but it worked out nicely for us to see quite a bit of her. She and I went to the Christmas Tree Shop one night, and all of us went to Gloucester and Rockport last Saturday. It was lovely to spend so much time with her. She left Monday, then on Tuesday Evan's mom came. What richness to have both moms back to back. Mom was here for Lindsay's birthday dinner. She was also going back and forth to Fairwood helping Aunt Jan make a scrapbook. On Thursday night she spoke at our young moms' time, and boy, did everybody love her! She has a gift for drawing people together, and she sure put it to good use the other night. The last person didn't leave till 10:30, we were all having so much fun talking and sharing. I think the evening was therapeutic for all of us on many different levels. I'm still on a bit of a high from it. Thank you, Mom, for making the evening so special!

Last night I fell down our stairs--again! I've never fallen down stairs in my life (that I can recall anyway), and here I've done it twice within a three-week period. Apparently the top step is more slippery than I realize, for twice it has conspired to throw me headlong down the stairs. Thankfully I fell feet first, not head, and was able to frantically grab the banister and stop myself after about the 7th step. No doubt it made for a pretty comical sight. My older sister would have laughed her head off, wouldn't you, Lori? I managed to escape with a painfully pullen muscle in my left arm and a few sore spots in my back, but nothing serious or debilitating. Let me tell you, I've been thanking the Lord for His protection. It could have been so much worse.

Our family photo shoot two weeks ago was about the worst we've ever been through, thanks to two squirmy, ornery little ones and a clueless photographer-in-training, but we managed to get one really good picture that we've made into Christmas cards. Sure wish we had a scanner to show you all! The photographer managed to catch some great smiles from the kids.

This week looks like a nice quiet week after several weeks of what has seemed like nonstop activity. Maybe I can actually get to the bottom of the pile of laundry to fold--or even do some ironing! Wouldn't that be a novel idea.