thanksgiving

On Wednesday night we headed to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. Wednesday night we hung out with Taryn and Todd at their new house until way past my bedtime. Thursday we headed over to my aunt and uncle's land for the annual Turkey Bowl.

My family of blondies.

Only my family...

Interception!

On Thursday night we ate some of the greatest food ever at my parents' house, and then Greta proceeded to get sicker and sicker (she had a cold and then her asthma kicked in and she was feverish and I am mom of the year so I remembered her asthma medication and her nebulizer but not the actual compressor thing, rendering the medication useless - awesome), so we decided to cut our trip short and head home Thursday night.

After the cold, fresh air on the way home, she was actually doing a lot better, and was even better after some albuterol, and she's feeling much better today. Today we went over to Pat's grandparents' house and had leftovers and spent some time with Pat's family. It was all fine and good until Pat gave Greta a hard candy, and shortly after that she turned around and grabbed my shirt and looked at me with terror in her eyes. I knew from the look that she was choking. A few seconds later she swallowed the piece of candy but was freaked out by that, and she started coughing, which actually lodged the candy back in her throat, causing her to choke again. Thankfully, she coughed it up on her own and it shot out of her mouth and into the sink. The whole thing lasted all of 30 to 45 seconds, but it was  quite possibly the most horrifying seconds of my life. I was not only worthless at helping, but I also overreacted and made a nice scene in front of my in-laws. Pretty sweet. I think I will be taking some sort of safety/CPR class with the Red Cross or something, even though I'm pretty certain that if it ever happens again I'll still be as worthless.

The highlight of today was setting up the Christmas tree. It's so fun to see how excited Greta got about every little decoration. So cute.

Tomorrow Greta and I are going to the Nutcracker, which I am ridiculously excited about. I've been wanting to take her to see it since the day I found out I was pregnant.

Fran

 
PnF.com just celebrated its 7th (and crappiest!) year! Are you so, so excited? I do apologize again for the last lackluster year of nonbloggery. (I blame it on the 7 year itch.) For the first half of the year, using the word obsessed to describe my house search would be an understatement. And no one wants to hear that same crapola over and over. And then when we got the house on the market, multiple people advised me not to talk about the doings. I knew that was good advice, but if I couldn't talk about that I didn't know what to talk about. The previous 6 and a half years I would compose posts in my head (it's better-n-therapy!), and whether I actually posted them, it was a great outlet. Sadly, I've stopped the composing, and I've also been slammed with work-work and all of the little house things that need to be done, but I will try to be better. And I have high hopes for 2010. Yay for year #8.
 
In addition to the apologizing, I'm sure the burning question on your minds is, Did the Reeds have a great Thanksgiving?? Yes, it was lovely. Fairly uneventful (for us) but lovely. Here's the skinny.
 
Wednesday night: After work, we headed to my parents' house in Skaneateles and got Greta settled. Then we went out with Taryn and Todd. We usually all go out in Marcellus (the hometown) or Syracuse (close enough), but this year we decided to go to Sherwood Inn in Skan-town. While I felt sort of like an imposter, it was nice to not have to drive more than 5 minutes out of our way and to focus on talking to my friends without scanning the room every 5 minutes for a familiar face.
 
Thursday: We went to the annual McCarthy Family Turkey Bowl. This year was notable because it was the first year Greta didn't require one of us (the one NOT playing football - me) to hold her the entire time. Previous years she was freaked out by the multiple dogs, but this year she was unfazed. Within a few minutes of arriving, I saw her walking down to feed the ducks with my aunt and two little girls she just met. If you could have witnessed the difference between her personality previous years and this year, you would be sitting there reading this jaw agape. She is like a different child. It is a good thing. Oh, and I left my camera at my aunt and uncle's house, which is why there are no pictures. Sorry. Later on we had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house. Best meal of the year, for the stuffing alone. And the rest was just bonus. I love Thanksgiving...
 
Friday: We headed back to the ROC. Pat was summoned to work on his grandparents' flooring project, and Greta and I occupied ourselves by decorating for Christmas. We had a blast. Greta was super into all 2 and a half hours of it (I swear she was burnt out by minute 20 last year), and even asked me about many of the ornaments and not only didn't complain the entire time (a Christmas miracle indeed) but seemed like she could have gone for another 2 and a half hours. In the evening we went over to Pat's grandparents' house for Thanksgiving leftovers and to provide moral support (read: distraction) for Pat.
 
Saturday: More flooring duty for Pat and his dad. Greta and I did some grocery shopping and then headed over to Second Storie, an indie craft show. It was unbearably hot and crowded when we went, and Greta was unbearably clingy, but it was great to see some friends and some really top-notch craftiness. After the show, Greta decided to boycott her nap and was bombarding me with questions every 6 seconds (I timed it!). I informed her that I needed some "alone time," but she was unconcerned by my needs. I almost lost my mind. At this point I'd like to say GOD BLESS YOU STAY-AT-HOME MOMS. (I don't know how you do it. I am always fine on days 1 and 2 with Greta, but day 3 always involves some sort of breakdown experienced by yours truly. Seriously, how do you do it??)
 
Sunday: We did lots of stuff around the house ­- glamorous things like organizing the basement and cleaning out the garage. I even got my aforementioned "alone time" when Pat took Greta to the library while I went back to the Second Storie show so I could browse without Chatty von Clingerson. Since I am convinced no one has read this far, I will share that while I was cleaning the basement I found a brand new, wrapped Koehler toilet seat. Because one of our toilets could definitely use a new seat, and because I enjoy the thought of having a toilet seat that has had only Reed fanny on it, I had Pat install the new/old seat. Only until we got the old seat off and the new seat and base were right next to each other did we realize the seat has a green tinge (the toilet itself is white-white). It looks really silly, particularly in our overly bright bathroom. Now I find it amusing every time I pee and feel like I'm doing my business at the Emerald City. Okay, maybe this is funny only to me. Hey, don't act like you don't care about my new toilet seat.
 
And now it's almost Monday. Damn. I feel a little like I might throw up when I think about how I didn't do any work-work this long weekend (but worked nearly every free second the last two weekends, and of course during the week, including nights) and have so, so much to do. But I do feel like the break was deserved. No doubt I will be cursing tomorrow.
 
I hope you all had the most thankful of Thanksgivings.
 
Fran

Because, dude, I'm tired. Wednesday was pretty much the longest day ever. Greta and I baked two pies, made Thanksgiving cards, made a turkey-esque bread basket, met Pat for lunch at RIT, packed up and headed to Skaneateles.

Check it.

Our bread basket is not bad for a couple of non-crafters. (IN FACT, I think it's approximately 5,000 times better than our inspiration.)

Meanwhile, Greta had only a 30 minute nap (thanks to falling out of bed, for the first time ever) and said pretty much only three words all day long (no, why, and what [Her new thing is that she incessantly asks, "What?" This drives me nuts because I know she can hear me]) over and over and over. I don't think I took a breath until we were finally on the road to Skaneateles and all had Happy Meals in the car. Gross dinner, I know, but they're a guilty pleasure of mine. We got to Skantown, we put G to bed, and then we went out with Taryn and Todd. We made the rather poor choice of bar hopping (I use this term loosely) in Marcellus (our hometown), at least somewhat inspired by this Onion article. Marcellus has two bars and they're both dreadful. Despite the venues, we had a great time together.

Thursday we headed over to my aunt and uncle's for the annual McCarthy Turkey Bowl. We had a bonfire, good eats, and good drinks. Per usual, Greta would barely set a foot on the ground because there are always a bunch of dogs there. Carrying our 30+ lb turkey around in a big, puffy snowsuit is tricky business, but she was happy to sit in the back of my dad's SUV.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house, which was great as always. It is my favorite meal of the year. After dinner, we headed over to Phil and Becky's for the night, where we watched a few Sarah Silverman episodes. We also watched Pat eat maybe half a dozen clearly past-their-prime marshmallows before we found one that appeared to be moldy. I'm not sure what was funnier, Sarah Silverman or Pat's expression after he realized what he ate. Can marshmallows even get moldy? The world may never know.

Friday we headed home and then pretty much headed right over to Pat's grandparents' house. Ate dinner, etc, and then Pat's parents came back to our house for the night.

Saturday morning we headed *back* to Skaneateles for our little buddy Oliver's first birthday party. Taryn made him a Very Hungry Caterpillar cake, which he was clearly excited about.

Taryn fed him some cake, and then she kind of let him have at a piece. I was amazed and thrilled to see how neat an eater he was. Check out these fine motor skills!

Here's G holding the balloons she was given at the party. Such a cutie.

Can I tell you how excited I am to be back home and have no planned activities in the near future? Hallelujah!

Oh crap, now I've got to actually buckle down and study. Ugh, and think about going back to reality on Monday. Boo.

Fran