thanksgiving

Matt worked Thanksgiving day.  Surprise, surprise.  He went in at 8 am on Thursday morning and got off on Friday around 10 am.  He's doing his pediatric radiology rotation right now so he's at a different hospital and they don't do a night float rotation there.  So for two months we have to deal with a crazy schedule, 24+ hour calls, and overnight call every 4th night.  Man, I am so glad his entire residency isn't like this.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday with a big, traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our friends, the Dyals.  They hosted and cooked the turkey.  They moved their big dinner to Friday so Matt could be with us.  How nice is that?  We, of course, ate too much and had a good time.

Willa and I spent the actual Thanksgiving day at home, but we did a few things to make it special.  Willa took a shower with me which she LOVES and then we put on comfy sweats.  I spread out a big blanket in front of the TV and we had a picnic on the floor while we watched the Macy's Day Parade.  We ate summer sausage and cheese and crackers.  We had dip and apples.  And we had chocolate milk with straws.  Willa was in heaven.  She is an avid milk drinker but she hadn't had chocolate milk before.

In the afternoon, Willa took a great nap and I Christmas shopped on line.  When she woke up, we pulled out the Christmas decorations, blasted Christmas music, danced and decorated.  Willa loves the decorations.  We only have unbreakable ornaments on our tree so she got to play with all of them and hang them on the tree by herself.  She preferred to put 3 or 4 ornaments on one branch instead of spacing them out evenly.  And she liked to group similar ornaments together.

After decorating, we made pumpkin cookies to take to the Dyals.  I measured and Willa "helped" me pour the ingredients in the mixer.  Several spoonfuls of flour and sugar ended up on the floor and counter.

Pictures?  Of course not.  But I still wanted to write a little narrative so I could remember our special holiday.

trick or treat

Willa was a cat for Halloween.  She adores cats right now. You want to get her talking?  Then bring up the subject of cats or better yet, show her a real cat.  Meow.

We had a busy Halloween weekend.  Friday night we went to our old ward's Trunk or Treat.  Saturday night we went to a Halloween party at a fellow resident's house.  And Sunday night we went trick or treating around the neighborhood.

Willa very quickly caught on to the idea of trick or treating and loved it.  She would repeat "Trick or Treat" and "thank you" on command.

At the Trunk or Treat, she happily walked up to the first person, said her lines, and got her candy. But then she threw a little tantrum because I wanted her to move on to the next person, and she wanted to eat her newly acquired pixie stick. I gave in. She dumped most of it on the ground on accident. There were maybe 40 "trunks" to visit but we only got half way around the parking lot. Willa just couldn't understand why I wanted to move from person to person without eating the candy. She would visit 3 or so trunks and then insist on eating another piece of candy. But who could blame her? She hadn't seen so much candy in her life.

We went to a few houses as a family on Sunday and then I went back home to pass out candy.  Matt and Willa continued around the neighborhood.  I am happy to say we ran out of candy (and started passing out some of Willa's collection).  Last year we had one trick or treater.  But I guess our new neighborhood gets into the spirit a little bit more.  After Matt and Willa got home, a few more kids came to our front door.  Willa thought it was great fun to be on the giving end as well.

(Moe - I was so burnt out of Halloween when I finally pulled out my camera Sunday night.  Sorry.  These are the best pics I have of Willa the Cat. And I didn't bother with make up even though I specifically bought Halloween make up to draw a nose and whiskers on Willa.)

NC - Day 3

We spent Saturday on the lake.  The sun was warm, but the breeze was chilly.  It was a perfect fall boating day.

The leaves were gorgeous from the lake.

The little girls had a great time.  They loved standing in the front of the boat in the wind.

They loved driving the boat with "PaPa" (as Willa calls my Dad).

And they loved fishing (for about 2.5 seconds).

NC - Day 4

On Sunday, we took some family photos, ate a big breakfast, packed up, and headed home.