Virtually There: Thanksgiving in review

We had an amazing Thanksgiving Weekend. I won't even be able to accurately remember all the things we did, the things we laughed about, the food we ate (okay, I can probably remember the details of the food since I'm slightly food-obsessed). Also, given that I was having such a great time, my photos of the weekend are scant so you'll only get a smattering.

John's sister, Sue, her husband, Steve and their kids, Kennedy and Claire, joined us for the weekend from Cambridge. We spent A LOT of time with them last year when we were in Waterloo and we really miss them. Like, A LOT. It was great to have a full weekend with them and feel like we never left Waterloo (minus the Ottawa scenery out the door).

On Saturday morning we went to Miller's Pumpkin Farm south of the city. We had lots of fun roaming around the patch, riding the wagon, jumping on straw bales. (As an aside, I can't really see us going back there in future years - the nickel and diming was a bit much. If I'm going to buy a pumpkin out of your pumpkin patch, don't charge me a dollar to ride the wagon to get there. Just sayin'.)

On Saturday night, the whole crew (including John's brother and his family) was at our house for a supper from that great Canadian institution, Swiss Chalet. In the evening, the girls all had a sleepover in our girls' room (a sleeping arrangement that continued through the weekend) while we adults sat up and laughed until we couldn't stay awake any longer. (Had to be at least 10:00 p.m.)

On Sunday we went to Carleton, along with the rest of Ottawa, for the annual Butterfly Show in the greenhouses. We met friends Pam, Jim and kids there as well as John's brother, Mike and his family. Hope was too overwhelmed by the crowds and preferred to hang out in the lobby with me, which I didn't mind because I was feeling a bit claustrophobic anyway. Next year we're going on a weekday. From there we walked to Brewer Park and spent a good hour or two hanging out there with the entire family and Pam and Jim. The kids had a great time, didn't mind the cold air, and we adults loved just hanging out and talking. I loved seeing Sue and Steve finally get to know Pam and Jim after we've talked about each of them to each other for so long.

We spent the afternoon lounging at our house and then headed to Mike and Cibele's (John's aforementioned brother) for a Brazilian meal that Steve kept referring to as fishwater (actually call fejoada, but truly, when said, sounds like 'fishwater' if it was said with a strong Brooklyn accent). The funniest bit was at lunch that day when we adults all started simultaneously whistling the tune from Bridge on the River Kwai after Steve started talking about being served fishwater while in a Second World War work camp. It was hilarious (not the fact that people were in work camps. That kinda sucked for them.). The kids thought we were all nuts.

On Monday, Sue and I took all the girls to Starr Gymnastics, where we also met up with Mike and Cibele and their daughter Sofia, for drop-in gymnastics. The kids had the run of the place. Being a drop-in, we adults were in there on the action, too. My legs were so tired later from trampolining. I totally ROCKED the hula-hoop though. That Wii Fit is totally paying off!

The rest of the day was lounging and preparing our Thanksgiving feast. Which was AWESOME by the way. I kicked serious turkey ass. And pumpkin pie ass too.

All the other bits of the weekend involved Sue holding or entertaining or changing Henry which was such a huge break for me, she has no idea. Not that Henry is that difficult, he's really quite easy, but still, it meant I could sit and do nothing or have tea or whatever I wanted, something I often don't get to do. And Sue loved it too. Win, win!

The only thing "wrong" with the weekend was that John's mom, The Omi, wasn't able to join us. She was supposed to be here but came down with a nasty cold and had to stay home dreaming of turkey and stuffing from afar.

I guess I was able to remember a lot after all, an improvement over Mrs. Short-term Memory, my other persona. Here is the smattering of photos that I was able to capture during all that fun: