Since this is the last Friday before Thanksgiving, I thought I would post a turkey themed photo.
There used to be a store around town called The Christmas Tree Shop. It was such a cool store. It was the perfect place to shop for holiday themed items. They had some neat wall art, home items, toys, greeting cards, and even food and snacks. It was one of those places where we’d go to whenever we were out that way.
When Sam and I first moved in together, we got huge coffee mugs with a “K” and an “S” on them. We also bought our monogrammed Christmas stockings there. We had Christmas and Thanksgiving placemats and table runners that we bought there, too. We were pretty sad when we heard it was closing down.
On one of our early fall stops there, I remember Sam had been in one area of the store looking at some things while I was in another area. I spotted something that I thought would make her laugh. So I put on this ridiculous turkey hat and just kept walking around the store until she spotted me. Surprisingly, she didn’t ignore me (which she had every right to). She chuckled and probably told me to take it off. So I did, and immediately put on another one.
Of course, I asked her to take pictures.
Looking back, I kind of wish I had bought the one with the legs hanging down.
It was an exciting thing this week to see how well Ella is doing in school. She brought home a “book” that they were working on with her. It is short words with the short “a” sound. She read the entire thing to us! “Max The Cat” was the book and she did such a great job. I couldn’t be more proud of her. I wish I could figure out how to post the video.
I Was Being Honest
It looks like Sam’s side of the family is doing Thanksgiving on the Friday after the holiday. I was at work one night this week and she texted me about it. That was followed by, “So what do you want to do on Thanksgiving?”
Me, being me, I replied with two photos:
and ….
I think she is gonna be just fine with that!
Speaking of the Lions…
I don’t want to get TOO excited about this and I certainly don’t want to jinx anything, but ….
That brought a tear to my eye. I truly hope that they continue to play well and win games. It has been an amazing year of firsts for my team and I am very happy for them, our state, and my fellow fans.
I have always watched them. Even the year they went 0-16! It hasn’t been pretty, but I have always been a fan. I found a T-Shirt that I need to get myself.
A photo for no reason at all…
One week from today is Thanksgiving. So I asked AI to make me in a turkey hat.
Thanksgiving is just around the corner. My Facebook feed is full of friends posting their 30 Days of Thanks. Everyday they post something they are thankful for. Personally, I believe we can find something to be thankful for every day of the year.
I was transferring pictures from one hard drive to another this week and found a picture of Ella. She’s probably nine months old here.
That turkey hat was something I bought to wear when we hosted Thanksgiving. I remember putting it on her and snapping this picture. She has always been the perfect photo subject. She always seemed to know how to pose.
It is so hard to believe that she was ever this small. I love the rolled pants! That Gobble shirt/onesie was one of 3 or 4 that all had some sort of Thanksgiving phrase on it. Sam was always good about getting “holiday themed” outfits.
When I looked at this picture, I laughed because of the baby gate surrounding the Christmas tree. With the new kitty, we’ll need something like that to keep her away from the tree … And out of it!
Sam has already said that there will be no ornaments on the tree this year. There are too many important ornaments that might break. Instead, I have been instructed to go out and buy “a crap ton” (her words) of LED lights for it.
I’m sure my weekend will be filled with holiday decorating. Especially since she usually is in full blown Christmas mode on November 1st!
Tonight I return to work after being off for 6 days. The best thing about being off was being able to spend time with my family. Naturally, I had my camera ready and caught many wonderful moments.
Wednesday
We were very minimal with the ornaments we put on the tree this year. Ella is all about the tree and the lights already. The special ones we did put up were more toward the top of the tree, while the “generic” ones were toward the bottom of the tree. Ella can reach over the gate that we have around the tree and gets to those. It was probably smart to keep the extra fragile ones in the box this year.
We did make sure to put AJ’s ornament close to Ella’s matching ornament from last year, though.
Wednesday, my brother sent a package to the kids with a few outfits from the Disney store. I am pretty sure that my kids first Disney trip will be accompanied by Uncle Chris! He sent Ella a Christmas Minnie Mouse, who she has been hugging on since she arrived.
My wife is a “Pinterest Mom.” She is always on there looking for things. She found a recipe for homemade Play-Doh. It was messier to make than to play with. It consisted of cake frosting and powdered sugar. Once it was made, Sam gave Ella a rolling pin and cookie cutters and they were playing with it. She certainly had fun.
Thanksgiving Day
Our family stayed home this year. With Covid numbers rising, we felt it best to just celebrate at home. A few years ago, I bought a silly turkey hat at the Christmas Tree Store. Ella took pictures in it last year, and naturally, I had to pull it out again to get more!
Last year’s picture is her in this same hat in front of the Christmas tree, too. AJ is just too small for the hat to fit him, but I had to get at least one of him in his “First Thanksgiving” shirt near it …
Once the turkey was in the oven, I sat down to watch the Detroit Lions lose another game. It seems like they always find ways to lose! It looked like they actually might win this one, but as usual, stupid penalties helped them add another “L” to their record.
Friday
I can say that in my entire life, I have only been Black Friday shopping once! That was enough. We spent the day relaxing at home on Friday. My wife went out briefly to run a couple errands, but no shopping was done!
We’ve been trying to get AJ as much “floor time” as we can. As I sat next to him on the floor, Ella came over and decided she was going to lay next to him. There was lots of laughter and giggling.
Saturday
I picked Dimitri up in the afternoon and he pretty much stayed in his room playing on the X-Box. He brought over some game called Halo. It’s one of those “kill the aliens” games. While he was doing that, I was watching the U of M/Ohio State game. As a Michigander, whether you are a Michigan State fan or U of M fan, you ALWAYS root for whoever is playing Ohio State.
I wasn’t really sure if the Wolverines were going to pull off a win, and there were many sports folks saying that Ohio State was probably going to win. I was happy to see Michigan walk away with the win. So was AJ, who celebrated on Ella’s U of M blanket!
Sunday
It snowed pretty much all day on Sunday. Dimitri usually stays with me until evening, but said he wanted to go home around 2:30 that afternoon. When I returned home, I noticed that the snow was perfect “Snowman making” snow. I grabbed Ella’s snow pants and got her dressed and we went outside.
She walked around the yard and wasn’t sure what to make of things. I made a snowball and started rolling it for the bottom of our snowman. She watched me and I tried to get her to help me. She was more interested in just sitting in the snow or laying in it. The snowman was never completed.
Instead, we walked around to the front of the house, where she sat and pointed out the colors of the oversized Christmas bulbs. She then returned to the back yard, where I grabbed the sled that Sam’s dad gave us. I placed her in it and pulled her around the yard. At first, she seemed confused by it, but by the middle of the ride, she was all smiles!
She eventually walked back to the trampoline, which was covered in snow, and wanted to jump on it. Why not!? She had a blast! I could see that her nose was red and I knew it was time to bring her in the house, but that was a challenge. She loves being outside! I eventually talked her into going to see mommy inside. I had so much fun with her outside! Hopefully, next snowfall, we’ll finish that snowman!
Monday
I had my physical Monday morning. It went sort of how I expected it would. I will probably blog about it in more detail separately.
The highlight of the entire day was close to bedtime. I was reading Ella some books, which as soon as I was finished with, she’d take them to mom to read. As I took this picture, and reflected on Thanksgiving, I realized just how lucky I am and how thankful I am for my family.
I hope that you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 