Thanksgiving 2010

There are no pictures to document it, but our Thanksgiving started off the way it always does- a pumpkin bread breakfast with Grandma. When Grandma left, Mom and Elizabeth rescued the turkeys from Grandma's oven while Aaron and I sat on the couch and watched part of Forrest Gump. Because that's such a Thanksgiving movie. After a very long while, the CCE and Andrew and Debbie arrived and we began our festivities.

This was the main theme of the Thanksgiving speech Daniel prepared for us:

He read parts from Of Plymouth Plantation, then we did an "interactive activity". I think we got a little too excited about the interactive part. Just the passing out of the pens caused quite a ruckus. Not surprisingly, Aaron and Andrew were 95% of the ruckus. They can't just be handed a pen. They have to throw them, trade them, complain that they don't like the color, start drawing on their hands, attempt balancing them on their fingers...and the list goes on. Finally Daniel "RANDOMLY!!" handed out a card with a family members name on it to each person. After we had written a few things we were thankful for about that person, we gave them back to Daniel and he read them aloud "ANONYMOUSLY!!" He was big on the 'random' and 'anonymous' part. It was an interesting twist to our normal "say what you're thankful for" tradition.

This is what Elizabeth looked like when Daniel was reading the card about her.

Apparently, Aaron thought the activity was getting a little long because he said that his "stomach would be extremely thankful if it actually had some food in it." After applauding Daniel for his efforts {he really did do a good job}, we all agreed that yes, Aaron might have a point and so we moved on to the eating portion of the day.

After washing the ridiculous amount of dishes that always make an appearance at major holidays, we ended the day by visiting with Grandma and Nicholas and watching Christmas movies.

ps. Elizabeth and I braved Black Friday and not only did we return successful, but we also returned alive. 

The FCCC

I take my job as president and CEO of the Family Christmas Card Committee {aka the FCCC} very seriously. I do allow my dear mother to have some input on the cards since they are from her as well, but I do most of the picking, licking, labeling and stamping myself. I don't seek much input from the rest of the family because having 5 additional people say what they like and don't like on such an important matter is like signing your own death sentence. Bad idea. 

{Can we pause to discuss for a moment the chaos that is the taking of our family picture? This was the first time in almost 14 years that someone whose name starts with Aa didn't turn a simple photographic moment into a half-hour nightmare. We used to dread going to Sears for our Christmas picture because of that small brother. Daniel would sigh and roll his eyes the whole entire time.}

Last year Melissa made our cards and we loved them. This year we're getting our Christmas photo cards from Shutterfly  which means I only had something like 400 designs to wade through.{There are also holiday photo cards from any politically correct in our midst.} I thought these designs were especially cute.

Notice how all these cards have cute children on them. I don't think that is a coincidence. Do you have any idea how hard it is to be a productive CEO of the FCCC when there are such cute people staring at you from the computer screen? 


We have two card options we'll be deciding between but I can't put them up because certain people who read this blog will be receiving one and I'd hate to ruin the surprise. Hint: they're both very pretty and they both feature cute children. 


I think I'll host a cookie swap just so I could use this invitation.

There's a small possibility I might like to host a cookie swap just so I'll have a good excuse to make myself some oreo balls and snickerdoodles.

Thankful

I wasn't able to write out my Thankful ABC's this year, but I did have time to make this little collage of just a few of the people I am very thankful for. If I had made a collage of all the babies and little people I'm thankful for, we'd be here until Easter because there are so many.

"Thanksgiving, after all, if a word of action." W.J. Cameron

The very over-due weekend recap*

* Said weekend recap only covers one day of the weekend so I'm not sure it really can be filed under the  "weekend recap" category. You know what I have to say about that? Whatever.

On Friday Molly and I went to see Haitian and African drummers perform at her school. 

 I had never heard of the Bamidele Dancers and Drummers before, but I am now aware of the fact that they are a trio of highly talented and energetic individuals who seem to be powered by the Energizer Bunny. Molly wanted to sit with her school friends during the show and since I'm not in that elite group, I was relegated to sitting with the mothers and grandmothers. I had no idea that children started the whole "I don't want to be seen with you" thing when they're only 5 years old. We have so many wonderful years to look forward to. Towards the end of the show, the dancers were telling us how drums were used as a form of communication. To demonstrate this, a drum and a conch shell had a conversation the topic of which was every person in the room over the age of 18 had to come up to the stage. As I generally don't volunteer for things unless I know what's going to happen, I chose to forget the fact that I'm over age 18. I am so glad I did. If nothing else, Molly might have been embarrassed. 

    When we got home, we got Zachary off the bus and played outside for a while. Molly is in a fairy phase so we spent a while building fairy houses in the trees behind their house. After a while, we heard a lot of crunching and crashing from the trees in the general direction of the neighbor's house. These noises can only mean one thing- the neighbor girl is coming over. She's not allowed to come over when my aunt's not home so I'm always telling her she has to leave. This week I thought of a brilliant new approach. I told the kids to be very quiet so maybe Danica wouldn't notice we were outside and she'd leave on her own. Molly liked this plan but Zachary, normally the quieter one, decided this would be a great moment to shout out, "WHY DO WE HAVE TO BE QUIET?"

After I left Z and M's house, I drove home to pick up the twins then went to our friends' grandfathers wake. Two interesting things happened on the way.

1. We pulled over to let an ambulance pass which started a conversation about how interesting it would be if the ambulance was going to the funeral home. Something about an emergency at a funeral home seemed to strike us a little funny. We also discussed how someone passed out during Ronald Reagan's funeral and if indeed the ambulance was going to rescue someone from a funeral home emergency, the person could say that the same thing happened to them as happened to someone at the funeral of a president. {If you're confused by this whole conversation as well as why we were having it in the first place, I completely understand.} As it turns out, there was an emergency at the funeral home. The brother of the man who died passed out in front of the coffin. Of course, that is not funny, but we did slightly enjoy that our what-ifs because an it-happened.

2. As I pulled into the parking lot, I did a fancy little turn. I like to add a little excitement to my driving every now and then. Almost immediately the twins started ooohhhing and aaahhhhing with a great deal of enthusiasm. I looked over at them and explained {once again} that I can be a cool driver when I so choose and I was glad they were there to witness it. I could almost hear them roll their eyes as they said, "we were NOT talking about your driving. We were talking about that sports car over there." Ok then. I will just go back to my normal, abide by the rules, highly boring methods of driving. {I still think it was a very fancy, cool driver turn.} 

Meet the Eggberts

The female citizens of Babysitterville are avid crafters. We often find ourselves buried under piles of construction paper, scissors, markers with no covers and cries of "where's the glue???". Our latest and greatest inventions were various members of the Eggbert family. This family provided us with hours upon hours of creative entertainment {see also: Molly was perfectly happy to sit in one spot for hours}.

Aunt Gigi is a reforming hippie/fortune teller

Caitlyn is Aunt Gigi's daughter and, according to Molly, wants to be just like her mother

I don't know why we have two Sarah's

Such a well-groomed Eggbert couldn't possibly be named anything other than Daniel

Having never seen Christopher was not an issue for Molly. She cut, glued, and drew like they were best friends.

Jason is a paper rendition of my dear friend, Jason Varitek. 

Elvira is just some Eggbert great aunt 

Grandma is our Grandma 

Contrary to popular belief, Hank, Danny, and Zack are not triplets- they're cousins. 

The real Zack loudly voiced that he was not at all pleased with the fact that his egg was so grumpy looking. In her great kindness, Molly looked at him and said with a shrug of her shoulders, "oh well." She's so compassionate. 

***

As a matter of fact yes, I do have a life outside of babysitting. As proof, let's discuss my sociology class for a minute. Ever since the second week of class, a distinct pattern occurs every week: 

1. Mr. Louis begins teaching at 4 o'clock to 30 students who are divided as follows: 1/3 pays attention, 1/3 sleeps, and the remaining 1/3 texts/Facebooks/talks to their neighbor/make loud and annoying comments. {Yes Craven, I'm looking at you.}

2. Around 5 o'clock, people start making noises and loudly hinting that they NEED a break. {Because we just started one hour ago and can't possibly be expected to act like responsible people.}

3. Mr. Louis decides that we can have a 15 minute break and before the words are fully out of his mouth, 2/3 of the students are out the door never to return.

4. The remaining 1/3 of the class sits quietly during the break and stay for the remainder of the class.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 every Thursday from 4:00-6:45

There are some in our midst who weekly go through the should-I-go or should-I-stay fight. My friend Matt is one such individual. After weeks of flip-flopping on the issue, he decided to flip a coin to decide his fate. Seeing how I sit behind him and we're friends, he turned to me and asked for a coin. Now I'm not one to encourage people leaving the class, but I knew he'd just get a penny from someone else if I didn't give him one so I wouldn't be doing any good by refusing. Besides, we've been through a lot of sociology torture together. He flipped the coin and it landed on heads which meant he would stay. He decided to leave anyway. My model-student attitude did not do one bit of good. 
It's worth noting that while I say Matt is my friend, for the first three weeks of the class I was convinced his name was Ben. I have no logical explanation for this other than he looks like a Ben. 

As you can see, we're very good friends. 

The main home-slice and Sir Barxalot

Our very beloved big brother/main home-slice/slightly crazy/family fashion icon Andrew found himself in a bit of a pickle on Friday night. To quote my mother, "he's ok, but he got hit by a car." He didn't break any bones or have internal bleeding of any kind, he's just very sore and quite bruised.
 

Being the kind people that we are, Christopher and I went to Build-A-Bear to make Andrew a soft, cuddly, lovable animal of his own to cheer him up. {Because we all know that 24-year-old guys love stuffed animals.} After a great deal of pomp and circumstance{and almost as much confusion and just as many decisions}, we presented Andrew with... 

We were quite proud of him. Naturally, we needed a card as well so we choose this highly appropriate card for the invalid and his new friend.

I'm pleased to report that we just returned from visiting the sick one and he's doing slightly better. In fact, he was singing a very off-key rendition of 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport'. It was rumored that he had just taken some very strong medicine which probably contributed to his loopiness, but improvement is an improvement even if it is loopy and off-key.



To quote Andrew on this picture, "WE TAKE CUTE TO A NEW LEVEL YO!!!"
I feel the 'yo' gets the point across in a way ALL THE CAPITALS don't.

Basically the cutest cowboy boots ever giveaway

I have a talented new friend and her name is Selissa.  For an example of just how talented she is, look no further than the picture below.

I am in love with these cowboy/girl booties. If they came in my size you'd better believe that I'd have no less than 3 pairs for myself.  Just think how well they would go with my cowboy boot earrings! 

Selissa has very kindly offered a pair of cowboy/girl booties to one very lucky person. {I am so jealous!} You choose any combination of two colors and the size.

To enter:

For one entry- visit Forever and a Day and tell me your favorite item Selissa makes

For another entry- follow this blog

For two additional entries- blog or tweet about this giveaway and leave the link {link to both this blog and Forever and a Day}

* You may enter if you do not have a blog, but you must leave an email address so I can contact you if you win.*

This giveaway will run through November 21st and I will announce the winner on the 22nd.


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The blue-eyed baby

giveaway sneak-peeks

We have TWO exciting giveaways on the horizon, my friends. 

1.

From the store that sells approximately 3,000 items from children's backpacks to Oriental rugs...

2.

I can't begin to tell you how much I wish I could win these. So cute!

Mark your calendars because Friday is the big day!

The cooking party

Autumn and I have a very simple motto: 

we only have one life so we must make the most of every eating and food-related opportunity as possible. 

We've introduced Joanna to this motto over the last few years and she's become a full convert. It's sort of an unwritten rule that you have to like food to hang around with us. As a group, we decided that last Friday would be the perfect time to have a cooking/20th birthday party sleepover for Autumn. After many, many texts sent between our three phones, the plans were finalized. Autumn would pick me up at home before going to the grocery store and Joanna would meet us when we got back. Autumn was very flustered when she finally came to get me because she "almost died three times THREE TIMES on the way over!!" Apparently, she had a one-sided conversation with the individual driving the other car that included phrases such as "CHILD, you should NOT be driving! Don't you know you can't cut RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME WHEN I'M TRYING TO DRIVE? You almost made me DIE!!" She was still so worked up it that when we drove by the scene of the almost-crime, she slowed down to show me. Unfortunately she slowed down a little too much thereby causing the number of near-death experiences to reach FOUR, but obviously we survived.

We finally made it to good ol' Stop & Shop and walked five aisles before remembering that the whole purpose of the trip was to buy necessary items, not wander aimlessly up and down talking. Being the birthday girl, Autumn was told to pick a snack for us to eat while we made supper. 

There were about 57 too many types of chips for someone in Autumn's current state of mind to choose from.

{not pictured but very vital to the event- butter and chocolate cupcakes}

After making our purchases, we returned home without incident and began the process of cooking baked macaroni and cheese with bacon. It's really much more accurate to say that we began the beginning of the process because we didn't eat until over two hours later. Part of the delay was due to the fact that we didn't have the 4 cups of milk required for the recipe. I believe we had a whopping 1/3 cup. Thankfully Grandma's Grocery was open next door so we didn't have to make another trek to S & S. 

Joanna was in charge of the cheese...

...and Autumn headed up the bacon frying department. She loved her job.

I was in charge of photography, finding various dishes and pans, and dropping half the bacon on the floor. I just bring chaos with me where ever I go.

By quarter of ten our meal was prepared, the kitchen was cleaned up{mostly}, and we headed down to our party room. We had set up a little birthday table in honor of the very special birthday girl. The cookies on the right say 'happy birthday Autumn' set-up like Scrabble letters on the Scrabble board. 

{That's Earl the Fish in the background.}

This is what we did for the next three house: eat, talk, talk, eat, eat, eat, talk, talk, talk a little more, eat some more, talk, talk, and talk. Then we ate and talked a little more just because we could. That was, after all, the point of the party. Next on the agenda was movie time. Once again, the birthday girl had to pick the movie which lead to more overly-polite conversations. ''Oh no, you pick what we watch.'' ''But I don't want to pick!" "But it's your birthday." "But you guys have to watch the movie too." "But we like all these movies." "We're getting old here, ladies." Finally we settled on 27 Dresses, but we could have chosen How the Grass Grows because the other two were asleep 15 minutes into it so I basically watched the by movie myself. 

The next morning we woke up fashionably late, ate breakfast, divided up the remainder of the fabulous bacon-filled macaroni and cheese and said our farewells. Overall, it was an extremely successful cooking/birthday party.  The only downfall of the weekend was that we completely forgot to make our super buttery popcorn like we always do. That, however, is a problem that will be remedied asap at our next cooking party. It's just about guaranteed the ingredients of the next party will also be butter, bacon, cheese, and popcorn because we don't like to stray from the tried and true. 

the birthday we're not making a fuss about

I tried to be very quiet about this whole it's Christopher's birthday thing because I know he doesn't want me to make a fuss about it, but I don't have any other post today to stick this at the bottom of so here it is. I thought if the font is really small maybe it would be a little less IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY SO LET'S TELL THE WHOLE WORLDish. At any rate happy birthday, Christopher!

In other news, Autumn and Joanna are coming over tonight for a birthday/cooking night. Our main ingredients are cheese, bacon, popcorn, butter, cookies and chocolate. Stay tuned for the results of Cooking Party 2010, version 1.

I voted

Voting Day is always a big day for me. I feel so important filling out the ballot and getting an I Voted sticker when I’m done. Because nothing shouts RESPONSIBLE and GROWN UP like a 21-year-old who gets excited about a little round sticker. It’s the simple things in life that bring me great joy. If nothing else, the sticker gets my mind off the fact that 6 out of the 8 people I voted for yesterday lost. Basically what it’s come down to in my voting career is that if I fill in the little oval next to your name, you can just about wave goodbye to your political future. Except for 3 people, every single person I’ve ever voted for over the last 7 elections has lost. It’s true that I have a sad voting record, but that has not stopped me from advising others as to how they should vote. Katie is my main client as can be seen by the following statements below:

“Are we supposed to vote tomorrow?”, “Are we voting for governor?”, “I meant to talk to you about voting today when we talked but I plumb forgot!”

 ***

 Hannah voted for the first time yesterday which lead to the following conversations on Facebook. 

Sarah  "I'm so proud of you for voting! Isn't it fun? Did you get an I Voted sticker?" {I pass on the importance of voting stickers to my clients.}

Hannah 

"The experience would be pointless without the sticker. When I inserted the ballot into the machine at the end, I was pretty happy with myself, seeing I hadn't totally messed up so far. Then, lo and behold, as I was walking out, the machine started going bonkers. I looked back and the guy was like, "oh you messed it up" or something to that effect. My heart dropped to the floor. In all my excitement to fill-in a crazy name in the blank "write in" spot, I had, of course, put it in the wrong section along with the only person who was running for town sergeant. (So THAT'S why there were TWO "write-in" spaces...guess the second one that was in its OWN section was legit...duh.) Apparently, the ballot machine didn't like that I signified more than one person. So, that section on my ballot was voided. I mean, the lady was running against herself, so it's not like she's doomed cuz she didn't get my vote. Poor Mike Tompkins won't have a chance now though. *sniff* So yeah. Yet another story of my everyday airheadedness. Hope you enjoyed it."

***

A few years before I began voting, Elizabeth and I went to the polls with Mom. Lounging against the wall fiddling with his phone was a young policeman. Elizabeth stared at him for about 35 seconds with a look of complete admiration on her face and said{in a very loud voice}, "Wow. He is SO handsome that he should be on the show Modern Marvels. "

Sometimes many times usually we don't know how to respond to her statements. 

The greatly lacking in pictures weekend

The Weekend of the Many Visitors can't really be filed under the category of Sarah did a super job of taking pictures that will be passed on to future generations. I started off with very good intentions of taking pictures of everyone and everything but that didn't happen. I think maybe I was distracted. I did, however, take two pictures. 

I like this picture for two reasons. One, it's a nice brother picture and two, Aaron is actually smiling. Aaron really smiling for a picture is such a rarity that I almost feel we should alert the newspaper about it. 

Grandma Connie's 70th birthday is at the end of this month so we had a surprise mini birthday celebration for her. She wasn't aware of who we were singing Happy Birthday to and was singing away with us until she realized we said, "dear Grandmaaaaaaa". 

I'll tell you what would have been interesting to have photographic evidence of: when Christopher was teaching me to drive his standard{her name is Gretchen}. It probably would have been even more interesting to video the whole thing. I discovered during those two lessons that I have a new talent known as the ability to stall in the middle of intersections. Granted, they were very slow intersections but still. I'll just accept it as a talent.

Hannah and Willie's dad took a few pictures of us before Christopher left which was very nice as I was about to commandeer one of the twins to do it for me. Elizabeth would have done well, but Aaron has a habit of just aiming in the general direction of the subject without looking and pushing the button whenever his little heart so desires. Needless to say, I think this picture is very nice. 

{Stephanie, are you paying attention?! ;-)}