Grammy Visits/Thanksgiving

Sunday: Our first full day with Grammy in the house. We all went to the LDS Church in the morning and had a lovely time (I went to FUS with Atticus the night before while Cait and her mom shopped, for anyone tracking our church attendance). We had the lesson about "Teaching our Children the Gospel" from the Heber J. Grant manual, I made some pretty restrained comments and a lively discussion ensued. After church I went to the "New UU" class that we have been attending the last few weeks in preparation for becoming members and everyone else stayed home. We had a lovely chicken dinner in preparation for the Turkey dinner on Thursday, and then we all wallowed in a state of exhaustion until we all dropped off one by one to bed, and all slept soundly, except for Lula, who woke every 15 minutes. Atticus hit a record of 13 hours of uninterrupted sleep, so at least we can trust in a better future for Lula.

Monday: A day full of inside play and shopping for Grammy and Cait as the weather started to turn a little chilly. We lost one of Atticus's shoes so we had to buy him a new pair, and we found some sweet faux vintage high-tops at Stride Rite (which incidentally, is about the same price as the Target kid's shoes, and the saleswoman gave Atticus a train toy for his tracks AND sent him a card through the mail a few days later thanking him for his business. Buy local people! It's worth it!)**

Tuesday: Grammy took Lula in the morning while Atticus went to preschool so that I could get the house cleaned and our stuff ready to go to head up to the vacation home in the Dells which Grammy rented where we would be spending Thanksgiving. Cait cut out of class early so we could head up to the house a little early and we spent the rest of the afternoon settling in, having dinner at the clubhouse and deciding whether to go swimming that night or not. We decided to wait. Devin and Hillary (Cait's brother and sister-in-law) came late and we stayed up talking to them until we dropped off to sleep.

Wednesday: A day full of swimming, shopping and playing outside in beautiful weather. Atticus made friends with some other nearby kids and he and I played football with them for as long as they would let us. Atticus loves playing with bigger kids and was so sad when we had to leave. We had a sweet cookout over the fire in the backyard for dinner.

Thursday: In the morning, we took our kids swimming and Atticus tried unsuccessfully to make friends with a kid there by following him around for an hour. Thanksgiving dinner was incredible, with all of the Carroll classics. I'll let Cait gush about it later if she so pleases (edit by Cait: it was my first Thanksgiving with my mom cooking and WOW, did I miss it! We just polished off the leftovers and I already am making plans for Christmas dinner). We almost just ate at a buffet but then decided against it because Grammy is such an excellent cook. Turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, rolls, pecan and pumpkin pies. Gluttony at its best.

(edit by Cait) Friday: We avoided the Black Friday crowds but did go to REI later that day. We bought Lula a snowsuit and myself and my mom both bought black down parkas (everything REI brand was 50% off, it was great!) Hillary and Devin bought some jackets as well, and Atticus picked out a pair of "spiders" Bogs (not Spiderman, but Atticus can't tell the difference).

Soccer, Bieber-style

It was SO windy, and the fire took a while to get started

Terrible picture, but I failed to get a decent one, and my mom deserves some photographic credit for the delicious dinner she prepared

Atticus and his "Lincoln Log" house 

** We bought them from Morgan's shoes in the Hilldale Mall -- highly recommend them! If anyone in Madison wants a $10 off the Stride Rite store, we have referrals for you :)