Thanksgiving 2016

Halloween coincided with midterms and Thanksgiving coincides with the end-of-quarter rush. This coming week I have a protein supplements debate presentation, a short research paper (for the same class as the protein debate), and an op-ed draft due, plus I have to moderate a class discussion in the same class as the op-ed. The short research paper also has a presentation component, but that's not until next week, along with a 20 page paper critique/study design paper for another class. As soon as those are done we get to study for our Epi final and start writing our metabolism final.

All that to say that Thanksgiving wasn't exactly carefree this year. We kept things very basic. Turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, broccoli, rolls, gravy, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. I haven't made my own rolls in years since we have bakeries here that do a much better job than I do, so everything was pretty quick and easy. I didn't make huge amounts of anything, so we had enough leftovers to last a couple days and that's it.

Mal surprised us and actually ate turkey this year as well as rolls. Usually he hates all Thanksgiving food, so eating turkey was a big deal.The boys watched TV pretty much all day, with the occasional helping out with cleaning this or that or playing of foosball. It's really not a fair match-up, but maybe one day it will be.

Ryan and I cleaned the house and cooked. Mal stayed in his pjs all day (and the whole of the next day too). I'd thought about offering to have cohort friends over or trying to get together with some of our friends for the day but ended up glad that we just kept to ourselves. I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunities to catch up with friends over winter break. When our meal was over we all helped wash dishes before enjoying pie and Dr. Who. The rest of the break was much of the same, except with homework thrown in for me.

Halloween 2016

I had a midterm the day after Halloween this year, so didn't have high expectations of being able to do much in the way of celebrating. Gareth decided to be Harry Potter over the summer, so that was easy. And Mal discovered an astronaut costume at preschool and from then on was excited to get his own astronaut costume, so that was easy as well because Melissa and Doug happen to sell a rather cute astronaut costume. I found an etsy seller for wands, and Gareth was set.

Ryan took the boys out while I studied and handed out candy. We got a decent number of trick-or-treaters, despite the weather. Fewer of the youngest crowds, more of the older crowd. All the kids were very polite - wishing me a Happy Halloween, complimenting our pumpkin, saying thank you, etc. The boys didn't stay out super long because it was a rainy day, but they got plenty of candy and were content with the couple blocks they did. Mal was very excited that he got a toy spider at one house.

The boys worked together to design our pumpkin this year. Mal had seen pictures of our pumpkins from 5 years before and wanted the teeth to look like Gareth's pumpkin from that year. Gareth got to design the eyes and the nose. I made the boys do most of the cleaning out of the pumpkin and Gareth carved the eyes and nose himself. Next year we'll have him do his own pumpkin. I came home a couple days after Halloween and saw an enormous slug on the pumpkin - so large that it startled me. 

I've never seen such a long slug before, and hope to never again. It was a good Halloween. Mal got to enjoy the neighbor's skeleton decorations again, and was sad when they got put away. But now he's excited for Christmas, so he's got something else to look forward to.