Cashews != Cash shoes

Thanksgiving is one of the few non-commercialized holidays. Now Black Friday has moved to Thanksgiving day. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I do know that Black Friday is a scary day and I do everything to avoid going to stores that day. Scary I say.

Anyway, we had a fabulous Thanksgiving! We had 14 people over for a wonderful Thanksgiving feast. I bought a fresh turkey from Yutzys farm market. It was probably healthier than a frozen turkey but I didn't notice much difference in the taste. Although I ate so much that day it really didn't matter.

I posted a picture of our Thanksgiving table. Erik's mom brought a festive tablecloth and I put ice cream cones to look like cornucopias (they just looked like ice cream cones - that is the extent of my creativity).  We also celebrated Christmas with my family so the kids got plenty of toys and socks and toothpaste.

Matthew is not a good eater so sometimes we just give him snacks and hope he get some nutrition. The best line of the weekend was when my Mom discovered Matthew with the open container of cashews and his foot in the container. She said "no feet in the cashews!"  I don't know how often that phrase is uttered.

Our Thanksgiving table

Sarah and her blanket

Jenna and her blanket

 The girls took a sewing class at Joann's to learn sewing by hand. They each made a beautiful blanket. Jenna did all her stitching herself but Sarah needed some help. Even so - they really loved their blankets.

Jenna and Grandpa

We had a great time playing games and spending time with the family. I went out for coffee twice with my mother-in-law and Megan and to Graeters. Basically we just ate a bunch of yummy food and played games. It was awesome!

88 points on Quiddler today.

The blog post you never thought I'd write

I have written several top ten lists. Obviously I really love lists. So I was thinking of a top ten list of advantages to being short. Now this is purely hypothetical since I, of course, am not short.

10. A short person's shoulders and head can double as arm rests for tall people
9. In the event of a zombie apocalypse short people can hide in more places (small cabinets, under the bed, in the dryer, etc)
8. They don't mind the middle seat in a car or an airplane.
7. Their clothes are smaller with less material so they are cheaper and take less time to dry
6. Short people have more leg room and head room in cars
5. They are never in charge of changing light bulbs
4. Short people look younger
3. Police don't have to push their heads down to toss them in the back of a cruiser.
2. Short people are fun sized!
1. People seem to like to make short jokes, ie short people are cool, hip, and funny

Apple Tasting!

The girls excited about apple tasting!

Fall is the season for apples and what better way is there to determine a favorite apple than to have an apple tasting!

Erik bought 8 apples, sliced them, and put them on plates for us to try.  He secretly knew the identity of each  apple and the four of us (minus Matthew - he doesn't care about apples) ranked the apples favorite to least favorite (1 to 8).

Below is the spreadsheet listing our results.

Apple Number	Type	Erik	Gina	Jenna	Sarah
1	Golden Delicious	8	5	5	8
2	Fuji	7	4	1	6
3	Braeburn	1	7	6	2
4	Gala	3	1	3	5
5	Red Delicious	5	2	7	7
6	Granny Smith	4	8	8	1
7	Honey Crisp	2	3	2	3
8	Jonagold	6	6	4	4

I was not surprised that Gala was my favorite. It really is the best apple. You should try it - you'll agree. I'll wait...

Now aren't Gala apples just plain awesome!?!

Sarah surprised me by picking the sourest, tartest apples as her favorites. Everyone had different favorites and different least favorites.

This was so much fun and we ended up making a caramel apple smoothie with the leftover apples.

73 points on Quiddler today!

Miserable Halloween 2012

Jenna has 3 room mothers this year and I'm one of them. My friend Lynn is also a room mother along with another mom from the class. Jenna had her Halloween party at school last week complete with costumes, games, treats, and a craft. I was in charge of the craft so we did an apple lantern. They also played a hot potato game with a ball filled with treats and toys. As you can see, Jenna is wearing her Laura Ingalls Wilder costume. Yipee!

Jenna's class party (Jenna is front and center as Laura Ingalls Wilder)

 Sarah is wearing her unicorn costume for her Halloween party as you can see below. She was absolutely adorable in this costume!  I did not have any jobs for this party which was fine. Being a spectator is also fun!

Sarah's class listening to a story (Sarah is the unicorn)

 I tried to get them all to cooperate for a picture. Didn't happen.

Jenna trying to round up the unicorn and the duck

 So I held Matthew allowing Daddy to take a picture before trick-or-treating. Beggar's night was miserable. It was cold and rainy and absolutely miserable. I passed out candy while Erik took the kids to a few houses (not too many because they were soaked!). Of course, they still went trick-or-treating. Nothing can stop the desire to beg for candy.

Jenna, Sarah, Matthew and me before trick or treating

I had originally planned on putting Matthew in a Thomas the Tank Engine outfit but instead put him in the warm duck costume that both Jenna and Sarah wore. He did NOT like the hood.

In other news:

• I finished the Mark of Athena (3rd book in the Heros of Olympus) and liked it. This one had a literal cliffhanger at the end of the book so I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.
• I delivered my first live lecture in one of my online classes. It went really well and I was pleased until I listened to the recording. I said "um" a million times and my voice is so mousy. Do I really sound like that? Uh...

85 points on Quiddler today.