Thanksgiving 2021

How lucky to have this cute little Ivan visit for a whole week?

And to have Alice, too?

After a busy weekend of driving to/from Indiana, the week was pretty chill.  Kirsti and Alice met Emily and Larkin at the Magic House on Tuesday while Ryan stayed back with Ivan and I stayed home to bake.  I still had to go to orchestra that night so I missed the walk around the block to look at Christmas lights with Steve, Alice, and Kirsti.  

On Wednesday, we had the Southerland kids here as Emily had a nearby photo shoot.  We all went to the zoo and it was epic.  

We visited the new monkey exhibit.  There is a place where kids can climb a huge tower just like a monkey and Quinn, Lucy, and Larkin had a blast.  

Temperatures were mild that day making it perfect for the animals and the humans alike.  We brought a picnic lunch and explored some more - this time the tigers and other big cats and then over to River's Edge to see the elephants and hippos.  We had a wonderful time but grandma and grandpa got a bit worn out.   

We celebrated my birthday a day early on Wednesday evening.  We moved the living room furniture around to accommodate the dining table with three leaves added to seat the eight adults (Steve, me, Kirsti, Ryan, Emily, Joe, Beckie, and Noah) and we set up the card table in the kitchen for the four youngest kids to sit (Lucy, Quinn, Larkin, Alice).  Steve grilled pork steaks, we ate baked potatoes, asparagus, fresh pineapple, and had pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.  It was pretty cute when Alice learned that it was my birthday.  She was VERY excited for me.

Thursday we added to our Thanksgiving table Elise (who had to work that morning), Fred Olver, our blind neighbor, and Sam Carpintero, a recently baptized young woman who we have taken under our wings and who is estranged from all her family.  We didn't eat until 3:00 so the morning was pretty laid back - watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade followed by the Purina Dog Show.  Emily brought sides, Beckie cooked one turkey - I cooked the other and she also brought some sides.  We had quite the feast.  

Here are the kids after dinner chilling with their screen time (wait, I also see Emily in her screen time, too)

We then put on a movie in the bedroom for the kids while most of the grown-ups played a delightful game of Balderdash.

Friday was another chill day (yeah, it was also really chilly) but the sun was out so Steve had Alice help him hang or oversized Christmas ornaments around the deck and we christened our little fire pit in the back yard.  

Beckie came over to see the Merrills one last time....

And then, it was early Saturday morning and time for Kirsti, Ryan, Alice, and Ivan to leave.  Steve and I helped them return their rental car so we were at the airport, too.  

The rest of the day was spent just puttering - doing a LOT of laundry - and I got to go to the pottery studio to do some glazing.  Steve and I watched "White Christmas" that night.  By then, the cold that had been developing all week was in full throttle and I felt kind of crummy.  Today wasn't too bad, though.  This is the first cold I have had since Covid.  I think I caught it from Joe who felt crummy last Sunday or maybe even Alice or Ivan who had ear infections the week prior to their coming.  And, since we were all vaccinated, we weren't wearing masks around each other.  

I close with a cute photo of the two cousins and with my gratitude for our family and for the joy that they bring to my life.

 

Hold on to your hats, this will be a LONG one!

My Sunday last week was so crazy busy that blogging was just not going to happen.  I kept thinking I would sit down sometime during the week and write something but alas, it was not to be.  I don't know how life as become so full lately - I guess all the "little" things I am involved in just all came together in the first part of November and hit me with the force of a tornado....So, I will try to recreate the last two weeks of non-stop:

Monday, November 8th, we went camping one last time before winter set in.  Temperatures were very mild and we had a lovely time at Cuivre River State Park located about an hour's drive north of the city.  The dogs have become quite the adventurers.  So much so that whenever they see us heading towards the garage together, or when the car is brought up to the back door for loading, they are very excited because they suspect a road trip of some kind.  Here they are in the back of the Element ready to go camping.  

 

What is so special about Cuivre River State Park is that thirty years ago, our Young Women rented a group camp there for summer camp.  It was called Camp Sherwood Forest and for three years - from 1989 to 1991, I was the director.  I honestly have not many memories of those years, maybe because it was so intense for me being in charge.  And, sadly, what few memories I do have are tinged with negativity because dealing with teenage girl's drama is not fun.  I have a few good memories of having Julina, Emily, and Elise there with me as young women, of bringing  baby Kirsti my last year because I was breast feeding her, and I made life-long friendships with many of the other women leaders.  With this camping trip,  I was hoping to re-visit the group camp and try to resurrect recollections of the place so Tuesday morning, after we broke camp, we drove to the entrance expecting to hike in but, surprisingly, the gate was open so I drove in and memories started to return.  Once inside, we encountered a park ranger who explained that he was looking for a squatter reported staying in the park which is why the gate was open.  We chatted with him a bit, he let us walk around for about fifteen minutes, and then we had to leave.  This camp was built in the 30's by the CCC and is on the national historic register.  The ranger was hired because of his restoration construction experience and for his blacksmithing skills.  Because the buildings are historic, one just can't drive over to Home Depot to buy replacement hardware - they have to be crafted to be like the original and that is where he will come in handy.  So interesting.  

Camping was great but it ate up two days out of the week.  Then, Thursday was completely taken up with a trip to Columbia for Steve's doctor appointment, a lunch visit with former neighbors Norma Shoupe and Jan Murphy, a dash up to the Amish bulk food store to replenish baking supplies, cello lessons with two students, and dinner with our friend Elizabeth.  We got home that night just exhausted!

Below are Steve and me with Norma and Jan.  That is our old house and backyard in the background.

The weekend of November 13th and 14th was the Carondelet String Quartet performances - Saturday was at the Epiphany Lutheran Church near our house and Sunday was at Intersect which is more downtown.  We have had weekly rehearsals for the past month leading up to these performances and boy, I am so glad to have them in the rear-view mirror.  And, in fact, the whole quartet is now behind us.  When we created the group, in the height of Covid, it was our only way to be in a performing group and it filled a need for all of us.  But now that the orchestra has resumed, Ara (2nd violin) and I are doing double the practice and double the time commitment and it is too much.  Melissa (1st violin) is having shoulder issues and needs to back off so we are now no more.  Here we are in the beautiful facilities at Intersect...Ara, Melissa, me, Doug

And even with all the extra things like camping and concerts and ward activities (a water storage seminar, a Relief Society candle making class, tithing settlement), there all the weekly chores to do:  grocery shopping, cleaning, finances, attending the temple, helping the missionaries with lessons, doing yard work as we put everything to "bed" for the winter, driving Fred or Sam places (Fred is our blind neighbor, Sam is a young lady in our ward who can't drive).  Plus, I am still going to pottery and once I throw something, I have to return the next week to trim.  Oh, and in a weak moment, I agreed to conduct a string Christmas ensemble in another ward!   Coordinating the car on Sunday mornings for the next few weeks will be nuts since Steve needs to be at early morning leadership meetings while I have to be fifteen miles away at another building leading a group of string players.  What was I thinking????  Speaking of car, as I was driving home from a lunch date with a little lady from church on Wednesday, I was slowed down by an accident on I-70 and the car overheated!  I quickly turned on the heater to draw the heat away from the engine but I couldn't pull over because at that particular spot on the interstate, there were no shoulders and I was pinned in the far left lane with everyone, including a semi, going five miles per hour.  Very stressful!!!  Happily, it cooled off once I passed the accident and could go 60 mph again.  When we took it to the nearby shop on Thursday, happily there was no radiator leak or malfunctioning fan - it was just low on coolant due to negligence on our part.  Yikes!  So, there it is, two very busy weeks.

Larkin came to be with us last Friday and we took a "field trip" to the main public library downtown.  What a gorgeous building!  What a delightful children's section!  When I took her back home, I gave Noah, Lucy, and Quinn piano lessons (it had been a month since their last one!)

Below is a fun photo of Steve and the dogs and then some photos of me at the Civic Orchestra concert that Emily, Noah, Lucy, and Quinn attended....

Me with dear Columbia friends who are now in Civic Orchestra:  Graham Woodland, Carolina Neves, and Margaret Lawless (who is actually NOT in St. Louis Civic Orchestra but is old friends with Irwin Jacobs (in mask) who IS in orchestra.  Margaret drove up from Arkansas to play with us)

This is the guest horn player who performed a Mozart concerto with us and here he is playing an encore with his alphorn.  Isn't it magnificent?  See me in the background?

And now we come to this weekend and Kirsti, Ryan, Alice, and Ivan who are here visiting for Thanksgiving!  Here they are on the plane and at our front door....

It was touch and go for them this week as Alice started running a fever Monday and Ivan on Wednesday.  But it turned out to be ear infections and not Covid so hooray, they are here!  We all drove to Greenwood Indiana to celebrate an early Thanksgiving with Julina and Alex today:  Southerlands, Merrills, and Steve and I all came yesterday (Saturday) while Elise and Beckie drove in this morning.  We visited and ate around 2:30 and visited some more and then Southerlands, Merrills, and Beckie and Elise have left for Missouri and Steve and I will leave tomorrow morning.  It was a short, intense visit but SO glad we made the effort.  Dinner was super easy as Julina ordered a Thanksgiving meal from Kroger and we brought a few additional foods (Emily's puppy chow!, a gluten-free birthday cake for Noah who turned fourteen on Thursday).  Ivan was SO adorable and let everyone hold him.