Thanksgiving

We had such a nice and relaxing Thanksgiving this year! My sister Jen came to visit. She got here Tuesday night and left Friday night, so it was a quick visit. We packed in as much as we could into the time. Unfortunately, they moved the kindergarten Thanksgiving feast to Tuesday afternoon instead of Wednesday, so she was not able to go to it. But, she was able to see Hannah at horseback riding and Megan at swim practice. She also got our household on wifi and got our new laptop online. It was funny, because I realized that our other computer was almost 6 years old! Yeah, it is pretty slow, so this new laptop is a real treat. It was supposed to be for the kids but I am referring to it as mine now.

Thanksgiving dinner turned out awesome. This year, I used the brine recipe from the Chicago Tribune and it was really good. The turkey was juicy and the gravy was not too salty (like last year). I think this brine is a keeper. Of course, I won Rich and my annual pie contest. (Rich does not read this blog or he might protest, but he would be wrong. My pie was way better). On Friday, we tried to undo some of the damage we did the day before by going to a spin class. Jen had been to spin before, but neither Rich nor I had. Wow, it was a workout! I was really wiped after and I thought I was going to be sore, but I was fine on Saturday. I think we will try it some more since winter is finally setting in and our chances to bike outside are now pretty rare (although you never know with that polar bear husband of mine).

Here are some pictures from Sam's Thanksgiving Feast:





And here is Jen, covered with kids:


I hope you all had as great a Thanksgiving as we did.

Totally Lame

Okay, I know I am totally lame with regard to updating this blog. What have we been up to? Here it is in a nutshell:

Sam turned 5 and had an awesome party at Pump it Up.



My good friend Janey from college came to Chicago for a conference so the kids and I went and had dinner with here. This was a major achievement for me because Rich had to go to India (more on that below) for work and was not here to chauffeur me to the city, as he usually does. This was not good because I have issues with driving on the tollway here into the city. There is so much construction and so may highway splits that I prefer to leave that whole mess to Rich. But alas, I HAD to see my buddy so off we went. We made it and it was well worth the stress - I had not seen Janey for about 15 years!


As I said, Rich was off to India for a week and we all hated it. Here is a picture of the kids waiting in the rain for his taxi to arrive home. He came back on his birthday, so we had a big celebration after which he fell soundly (and quickly) to sleep.



This was the Welcome Home/Happy Birthday set up:


Megan finished he fall soccer season and started swim team. This is new for us and she loves it. She is doing great. This was here in her first meet where she won two ribbons! Her best friend Paige is doing it with her so it is especially fun.



Sam is taking a little "Intro to Soccer" class in the morning before school. He is having a great time, but that may be just because he can run around like crazy for 45 minutes. The coach is awesome and funny so he enjoys going.



And finally, we had Halloween. The weather was cold and miserable and Mary got sick. The costumes were cute, though. Sam was Batman, Mary was Dorothy, Megan was a zombie 50s girl and Hannah was a dead prom queen (we had fun making that costume).



Here is a close up of the prom queen. Rich did the blood.




So all in all, we have been busy as usual. My sister is coming for Thanksgiving which is less than 2 weeks away. Help! Somebody slow the time down!