The Girls Go to Minnesota

This morning I took the girls (including Anna--all the girls in our family except the cats) to the airport to fly up to Minnesota to spend Thanksgiving with Anna's family!

Thanksgiving Feast with Elyse

Today was the Thanksgiving Feast at Elyse's school. Here's a picture of the two of us in the cafeteria:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I sent these pictures to Anna and Jessica from Granny and Pa's house:

(Elyse made the card.) 

(This is the pumpkin pie Elyse and I brought, in case you were wondering, though there was also a sweet potato pie for those who prefer it, like Pa.)

For whatever it's worth, this year Thanksgiving was the earliest it could possibly be. Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November, which is also usually the last Thursday in November, but this year the month started on a Thursday, so there's a whole 'nother week of November following Thanksgiving, including a rare fifth Thursday. I'm pleased with this accident of the calendar; it makes the Christmas Season seem extra long this year.

Anna and Jessica Head Off to Minnesota for Thanksgiving

This afternoon I took Anna and Jessica to the airport to get on a plane and fly to Minnesota so they can spend Thanksgiving with Anna's family. They're both excited to be going, but also a little nervous, and sad to be leaving me and Elyse behind.

Mommy Goes to Minnesota

Anna is going to Minnesota to visit her family for Thanksgiving, and this morning, while the girls stayed at Granny and Pa's house, I took her to the airport:

I texted this picture of Mom saying goodbye to Jessica:

There's a lot of construction going on at the airport right now:

While I was gone, Jessica sent me these pictures of what they were doing at Granny and Pa's house:

Thanksgiving Feast at J.C. Magill

Today I went to the girls' school to have lunch with Elyse for the second grade Thanksgiving Feast!

The turkey and dressing and gravy was pretty good, especially for a mass-produced school lunch. The macaroni and cheese was also quite good; I only ate a little of it because Elyse kept asking if she could have some of mine. I didn't eat the green beans, of course; I just felt too self-conscious going through the line to not get something that seemed like a grown-up choice. I should have just asked for double helpings of macaroni and cheese.

Thanksgiving Feast at J.C. Magill

Today I went to the girls' school to have lunch with Elyse for their Thanksgiving Feast! And afterwards Elyse and I went to the book fair, though that was a bit of a disappointment since it was an Usborne book fair and not a Scholastic book fair, and Elyse wasn't impressed with their selection. (She still managed to spend nearly all of her $20, though.)

(Unfortunately, I couldn't go to the Thanksgiving Feast yesterday with Jessica's class because I had to teach. Under other circumstances I might have cancelled my class to have lunch with Jessica, but this was the last class meeting my Tuesday classes would have before their research papers were due, and the next-to-the-last meeting for the whole semester, so I really couldn't cancel.)

Daddy and Elyse Week

This week, from 6:00 a.m. Monday morning when they left for the airport until about 4:00 this afternoon when they pulled into the driveway, Anna and Jessica were away to visit Anna's family in Minnesota. Elyse and I stayed here to hold down the fort and have a week of adventures together.

I made a conscious choice not to take my camera on any of our outings, because I wanted to be focused on enjoying my time with my daughter and not on looking for photo opportunities, so I can only describe what we did. Here are the highlights:

• Monday afternoon we went to Stone Mountain Park, one of our favorite places, and spent hours exploring the walk-up trail area (though we didn't actually climb very far up), walking around Crossroads, riding the train, and looking at the Carillon.
• Tuesday morning we went to visit my aunt Kathy at her house in Scottdale, only a few days before her move to her new condo in Tucker.
• Right after visiting Kathy, we went to Zoo Atlanta and spent several hours looking at the animals (and also arguing about whether or not we needed more M&Ms). Elyse was especially captivated by the flamingos and the meerkats.
• Elyse spent Tuesday night at her Granny and Pa's house, which was the first time she's ever slept away from home without Mommy or Daddy. She did fine, but didn't get to sleep until 11:00 (probably because of the long nap after the zoo).
• Elyse stayed at Granny and Pa's house until around 2:30 Wednesday; I took advantage of the time to watch a movie, something I don't often get to do these days. I watched the 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film The Conversation, starring Gene Hackman. It's every bit as good as Leonard Maltin says it is.
• Thursday we went to Granny and Pa's house for Thanksgiving with our extended family. There were, I believe, 37 people there altogether. We stayed all day, having leftovers for supper, and didn't get home until 8:30.
• Friday we went to Stevie B's for lunch. We were going to go to Stone Mountain afterwards, but Elyse feel asleep, so instead we just went for a long drive through various parts of Dekalb and Gwinnett counties. (I'd intended the visit to Stone Mountain as a surprise and hadn't told Elyse, so she wasn't disappointed when she woke up in our garage.)

Anna and Jessica got home a couple of hours after we returned from our Stevie B's/nap drive outing. We were very glad to have them home, but I'm also very glad I had this week of adventures with Elyse.

Recent Pictures

A couple of weeks ago we all went to Granny and Pa's house (that is, Chris's parents' house) for Pa's birthday celebration. Here's a picture of Jessica and Pa sitting in front of the fireplace:


Here, Piglet and Pooh have a discussion atop Jessica's favorite toy at Granny and Pa's house, the Fisher Price Little People castle:

(I believe they're doing a scene from Hamlet; Pooh is telling Piglet about Hamlet's father's ghost)

Eeyore is a friendly sentry on the castle:

Here Jessica and her mother dig in to the Thanksgiving Feast at Jessica's preschool:


Here are a couple of portraits taken just yesterday morning: