Traditions

With the changes in our family this summer I thought it would be nice to change things up to help us deal with the first holiday without Dad.   We were going to go to Florida to spend it with Jim and Pam and the girls but there just isn't enough time to see them and have time at Disney World so we stayed home.  Kevin and Doreen were in Milwaukee hanging with Alissa and it sounds like they all had a wonderful time.  A good friend invited us to have Thanksgiving dinner with them and that worked out nice.  It was a great time.   Thanks for having us Margaret - it was nice.

Friday we relaxed but needed to do a little shopping.  Ella stayed home with the phone by her side and watched her favorite shows on the ipad.  She just didn't want to come with and we were going to be fast.  We called her a couple of times to keep her up to date.  First stop was for craft supplies, then on to the grocery store and ending at Pier One to look for a plant stand.  Then home to Ella.  She did great but was happy to see us as well.  It was nice having that one on one time with Elizabeth too.  It was good to touch in with how she is doing with friends and stuff and she liked being able to say whatever she needed to without having to worry about her sister hearing.  

The girls did a couple crafts and then went in the basement to play.  I took a nap.   We then had dinner and watched a couple of their shows together.

Saturday we did some cleaning and the basement was spotless... great job girls.  We  had plans to go to a tree lighting ceremony at Rice Park and Margaret and her girls were coming too.  We got there a little after 4 pm.  The ceremony was going to be at 5:30.  There were ice skaters at the rink across from work so we watched them for a bit and took some fun pictures.

Then we went across the street to Rice Park to wait for the ceremony.  The wait did get a bit long and even though the weather was great, some got cold.  So, we walked around the park to warm up.  Next year I think we will skip the before stuff and just get a spot on the wall at the library and wrap up in blankets.  We enjoyed a hot cocoa and found a good spot but then walked around near the Ordway and that was a good spot too.

At 5:30 exactly, the tree was lit.  They lit it with what looked like a flying arrow and bamn the tree and the park were all lights.

Then we all came back to our house and had pizza.  The girls all played and Margaret and I watched HGTV.

Sunday the girls and I went to church and then one more event.   I thought it would be fun to go to Bachmans for the Santa and Alfred show.  Elizabeth and I had done it with Todd many years ago - before Ella even and I thought it would be a nice tradition to revisit.   As always the people playing Santa and Alfred were great.   The girls felt they were too old to go up on stage for the sing along but they were laughing with the "magic" tricks and singing a bit too.  I was also hoping to get a picture for our xmas card.   As you can see - we may have done a bit too many things this weekend:

Elizabeth napped on the way home and was a new kid when she woke.  We started putting together a dresser for Ella but needed a quick run to Menards for better screwdrivers.  I hurt myself when I opened one of the packages.  I knew when I was using the steak knife to cut the plastic that it could end badly and was right.  LOL   I was a little concerned I would have to go to urgent care but did get my thumb to stop bleeding.  Elizabeth was my helper on the dresser while Ella chilled.  We got the big part done and will be putting together the drawers this week.  Elizabeth wanted to keep working but I called a halt at 5:30.  Thanks for  helping Elizabeth.  Ella came up after a while and helped too.  She will be so happy to have a dresser again!

Next weekend we will decorate the tree and stuff.  Elizabeth suggested that we wait until it snows before we do it because it doesn't feel right otherwise.  I agree.

All in all it was a nice holiday weekend.  We talked about Dad and missed him not being here but we also started some new traditions to keep it all fresh.

Happy Thanksgiving.