The day of

She is my daughter. I loved watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade - commercials and all. I think she say there for 2 hours straight - definitely not something we do on a regular basis here. I did have her folding napkins at least.Preparations.

The bird. Mike is exceptionally fond of the bird. I need to let him start cooking it. I think he snapped about 5 pictures of it...just sitting there on the platter. Don't get me wrong, I soak up the fondness and the praise for not burning it.
And give thanks that he takes on the hassle of carving it!
Carnivores
In the end

Year two with the Thoms. Might have been year three if we knew they lived a two blocks down the road when we first moved here. A lovely tradition - to bad no faces in the pictures to prove it.

Year 3 and counting

It has become a Thanksgiving tradition to take a picnic to Switzer Canyon with the Coopers - only this year we were down the Main Cooper as she had back issues. The Coopers have a block that seconds in awesomeness only to ours - in regard to neighbors. Since Lainie could not come, Christine the block yarn dyer and master knitter (that is really her job, dying yarn - some days you can pass her house and see racks of beautiful yard drying in the sun) - Christine joined as as the surrogate mother.A real giant tumble weed - really.
Joseph and Ryan spent most of their time battling the giant tumble weed.
Menu - turkey sandwiches, popcorn, apples and pumpkin cookies. A pilgrim feast, sort of - only I forgot to get turkey at the store and substituted cheese and crackers.

I learned on this trip that there used to be a house in the canyon. This grove of palms lined the driveway.

Funny story - Ryan has a reputation of being...well, maybe a little rough. Let's just say it was a big deal for his mother to let him come to the canyon with a sword without her supervision. He's not mean...just a little rough. He was sent with thorough instructions not to poke or hack or stab or anything anybody. So Olivia and Joseph pulled out their Indian headdresses and Ryan says, quite matter-of-factly, "Oh good, something we can shoot!"


Looking forward to next year...

A little fresh air

I have not seen it, but supposedly there has been this nasty haze settled over the city recently. Maybe it is the Santa Anas...or maybe just the curse of living this close to L.A. Either way, we never need much of an excuse to find a trail and walk it. (Problem is these days we are always eager to go, but can't always figure out how to make it happen.)
Hasn't quite gotten the hang of the walking stick...


At least he has one end down...it's the wrong end, but it's progress.
Maybe this is why we can't always figure out how to make it happen...babies...

Ridley. Wish we could have just let her take off. I kind of miss the old days when dogs didn't all have to be leashed. The only time I ever remember putting our childhood dog on a leash, I hooked her to one end of a chain (and I mean chain, not a leash) and her best friend to the other end. It didn't turn out well and I never did it again.
'Bout time she starts carrying her own weight!
Thanks, Thoms! That was nice.

The one where Mimi came to visit

It started with a little party in the park! Frank and Irma's grand daugther (the one just behind Minnie) has a little girl, Lulu. And Lulu is 2! Or she was a couple of weeks ago when Mimi came.Quirkle Cubes. It's serious. Don't play if you don't mean it. Mimi means it.

We always get rain when my family comes across the entire country to visit. My brother and sister-in-law got 5 days straight of it. Mimi got enough for a gigantic, double, complete rainbow!

Our 3rd Annual Pie Stop By!! Always kicked off by Frank and Irma (see Irma...look close, she is a great grandmother if you can believe it). Mimi worked hard for the (no) money that night!




The monk. Mimi mistook a hand-me-down fleece vest from Kate V for Olivia as a sleeper sack for baby G.
And that is what it has become, permanently.


Loves us some Mimi!
And Suz! Traveling pals. We hope they do it again soon!

Year to year

Pals - Lilly and Greta (and me and Robin)

The man can sew!! (and the one when the kids went trick or treating)

He might deny it, but it was witnessed by me and my mother! Mike was certainly the Halloween hero this year. Olivia's request about a month ago was to be a frog for Halloween. Not sure where the idea struck...but then her request last year was to be a macaw and the year before, a zebra. So, we were not surprised. Naively we waited for the change of mind. The preference for a princess. But, like previous years, it never came and we were, once again, in Wal-Mart on Halloween afternoon. One of only about two or three times in the year that we patron Wal-Mart.A willing model.
The feet
The eyes
The lily pad. Granted, tree frogs aren't typically found on lily pads, but we started with the lily pad idea but ended up with tree frog legs...so there you are...a tree frog on a lily pad.
A bee
You can see the lily pad had a special feature of folding up on the sides to allow for tight spaces on porches. Unfortunately, at one house it did not fold up slim enough and an entire stair case of children had to be evacuated in order to allow the frog down from the porch. Children were crying, "But I haven't gotten my candy yet." Parents were responding, "Calm down! We just have to let the frog out."
Joseph was supposed to be the hand-me-down macaw, but last minute said he wanted to be a ghost (probably because he heard August was going to be a ghost). I was the genius of that costume. Two carefully placed holes and a TN hat on backwards to hold the sheet in place. Mike says he looks like it ought to be in a Charlie Brown cartoon.
Sweet Irma. Everybody else who came to her house got one piece of candy. Our kids (even Greta) and August got a whole zip lock full of the good stuff...with their names on it so Olivia didn't get one with nuts. LOVE our neighbors.
Receiving the masses. Irma counted over 500!
And thus closes another home-made Halloween. It will be a sad day when our kids refuse to wear our creations...well, I guess by then they will be too old to trick-or-treat anyway.