Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I never preface that with 'Canadian' by the way because for me, this is Thanksgiving, right now. That one in November - you know the one I mean - isn't on the radar for us up here. Although I do understand the placement of it for anyone in a warm climate - harvest happens later, but up here, we're just past the peak of the harvest so it is indeed time to lay out the feast and loosen our belts. It's turkey time!

Last night we had our Thanksgiving dinner: an amazingly juicy turkey, tasty stuffing, some of the best gravy I've made, an creamy bean dish made by Pam, horseradish mashed potatoes and carmelized brussels sprouts by John (Emily's favourite), cranberries and for dessert, Pam's pumpkin chiffon pie covered in whipped cream (okay, I think this may have been Emily and Hope's favourite). I only realized after the table was covered with stains and dirty dishes that I hadn't taken one photo of the group or the food. You'll just have to imagine. Mainly imagine this: six adults enjoying a lovely meal while the two toddlers were at the kids' table and then ran around in the basement while we continued to sip wine and be able to hear each other talk. It was heaven.

We had Mike and Cibele, and our very good friends Pam and Jim and their kids Nevan (Emily's best friend) and Celia (soon-to-be Hope's best friend) over. It was a lot of fun, and extra nice in that we were able to introduce Mike and Cibele (John's brother and sister-in-law who just recently moved to Ottawa) to Pam and Jim.

I did no studying last night so today and tonight will be busy (tomorrow is the first quiz in my course) but it was worth it for good food and time with good friends.

Before I forget it for all time (a good likelihood lately), I have to get this down: yesterday on our way home from church, Emily and I were talking about how we're giving away some of her relatively unused and ignored toys and books to charity. All week I've been explaining how there are kids who don't have many books or toys because they're families don't have much money or they live in a place that doesn't have many of these things and because we have so many, we need to share with them. She's been asking me about it everyday, as though looking for a loophole. Yesterday, I think she found it.

"We giving my books to the kids who has no money?"

"Yes, we are."

"I HAVE NO MONEY! THE KIDS GIVE BOOKS TO ME!!!"