Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was lovely. I spent it with the Lindsay's this year, and had a great time. C and I are continually asked if we are twins, and it pleases us to no end. I always wanted a twin growing up, and I love that I have one. Kind of.

C got up early on Thanksgiving day and made most of the dinner. I jumped in to help when I awoke, having arrived late the night before. (This is no excuse: she went to bed AFTER I did...) Somehow, the holiday just feels a little more like Thanksgiving when you actually do the cooking instead of just going over to another person's house. I suppose I feel this way because this is what my family did growing up. The picture below is for mom--I think she would have loved seeing her daughters making our traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

The weekend also had plenty of other adventures. Aside from Black Friday, how can you not enjoy a trip when it involves spa night at the Lindsay household, complete with "girl talk". I now know from sweet K. that if a boy likes me, I can know it because he'll give me pencils and school stuff. Good to know. Perhaps I haven't been paying attention to the correct signs. :)

We also enjoyed the annual "Let the Magic Begin" night. (For those who don't know, this is the annual Chipman celebration of the start to the Christmas season. There is usually a craft or theme, bingo, and always a mitten ornament which is passed around as we serve one another during the season.)

This year's party was a little easier than last year's, which took place in a hotel room since M and C hadn't purchased their home yet. We enjoyed making sugar cookies, and came dressed for the party in our homemade Christmas socks. D, A, J, and Aunt H joined us via Skype. Mom joined us from Peru, but Dad was delayed on business. Fortunately, he caught the tail end.

The kids loved decorating/eating sugar cookies, and I think we all enjoyed the pizza for dinner. Also, we enjoyed the decorated table, which is standard protocol for a "Let the Magic Begin" party. This year, however, Camille found a Mexican bingo game for us, which had pictures along with its spanish word. My favorite pictures included the devil and a drunk man. :) I actually won first this year (very unusual), but enjoyed watching the rest of the game as we go until everyone has won. All of the grandkids prizes had to do with light. K and B got reading lights, and J got lights that attach by velcro to his fingers. C got this fantastic light swirly thing which he loved (picture below).

The surprise of the night was that each of the us received a copy of a children's book our mother regularly read to us as we grew up. It was a book from her own childhood, and is full of wonderful memories. As I opened my book, a familiar smell of "old book" wafted up and brought back the childhood memories of reading what was, at the time, already a seasoned book. I'm thrilled to have a copy.

The Lindsay family also decorated their new Christmas tree. We particularly enjoyed putting up the ornaments with pictures of grandparents that have notes about the heritage they left for us. We also enjoyed reading the notes that are saved with each years' family ornament.

And, of course, what would Thanksgiving with the Lindsay's be without me getting sick at the very end. I insisted on a picture being taken as this is, apparently, something that I enjoy. The children were so sweet and made me the nicest get well cards, which I am also keeping around in case I get sick again and need a pick me up.