Thanksgiving Day 2009

For Thanksgiving we had my parents, our kids and grandkids, which was a total of 11 people, including us, around the table. All 3 grandkids were in the same place for a brief period of time, so I got a quick picture of them before they scattered.

Seth looked very handsome in his dressy shirt and vest!

Papa tried to get Seth excited about being up in the air, but he was more interested in chewing on the toy, than the game Papa was trying to play with him.

For some reason, (Kari thought it was a sugar high from the whipped cream and pie) Annika got her hat and sunglasses and became very giggly. It was a fun day, lots of yummy food and lots to be thankful for.

New Glasses

I got new glasses a week or so ago. When I ordered them, I was told that I could get bifocals with no line for the same price as the ones with a line. I hadn't gotten the no line ones before because they usually cost more, so I decided to give them a try, since they were the same price now. I'm still not sure that I am crazy about them, but like Ken said I might as well get used to them because I'm stuck with them for a couple of years. The one advantage of them is that I no longer have to tilt my head back to work on the computer, so that's nice. It was a pain to have to put my head back to peer through the bottom part of my glasses at the computer screen. The thing I don't like, is that I don't have the peripheral vision that I had before. You have to turn your whole head to the side to see things clearly to the side of you. So, there are definate advantages and disadvantages to each type of bifocals. Finally, I'm getting pretty used to the new type and hopefully will start liking them better.

Christmas Cactus

I got a Christmas Cactus (at least that's what I think it's called) last year at the MOPS Christmas brunch as a thank you for being a mentor mom. It was pretty small and had no blossoms, but I found a place for it and waited to see if it would make it. My cats were no help to it, they decided it looked like a tasty treat, so they "pruned" it some by nibbling on the leaves. In spite of that, it has continued to live and is now producing some flowers and more buds can be seen. There are 2 flowers in full bloom, even though it's not Christmas, and many more to come, hopefully there will even be some flowers blooming at Christmas.

I can't believe it actually bloomed and what a gorgeous flower it is!

Disney on Ice

Kari, Saben, Annika, and I went to Disney on Ice last night. Annika was very excited to see the princesses, she talked about seeing them during dinner and was so excited as we walked to the arena that she was dancing and prancing down the sidewalk. When we got up to where the princesses were standing waving at their fans, she went mute and just stood and stared at them.

There were lots of girls in various princess costumes, busily waving to the 2 princesses. One of the princesses was Cinderella and the other one is the new one that will be in a movie coming out sometime soon. I don't even know what her name is, but I had heard that she will be the first black princess, Disney has had.

Annika also enjoyed seeing Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy, but couldn't figure out why Daisy wasn't there also.

Out of the four movies that had characters in the show, Saben & Annika were only familiar with the characters from CARS. Kari had tried to show them parts of the other movies before they came, but Saben has played with the CARS characters and was the most excited to see them.

We were pretty sure that Lightening McQueen and Mater would be there, but didn't know who else would be there. Saben was hoping that Ramone would be there and he was (he is the purple car.) There were some fun characters from the other movies also, but the pictures of them didn't turn out as well. All in all it was a fun night, but got a little long towards the end, especially for the kids since it was way past their bedtime.

Saben enjoyed his sno-cone, also.

A Rainy October

I don't know if anyone else noticed it or not, I actually wasn't aware of it until I totaled up the amount of rain we had in October, but it was a very rainy month. There were enough sunny days that I guess I didn't notice how much rain we were getting. Some of the days and nights that we got rain, it really poured. One day alone, we got 3 1/2 inches, according to my rain gauge. I have been keeping track of monthly totals since 2002 and this Oct. had by far, more rain than any other month. Only 3 months have ever gotten into double digits, Jan. 06 and Nov. 06, had the same amounts of 10 3/10 inches, and Oct. 09 came in with a whopping 12 9/10 inches. I don't know what it is about where we live, but I almost always end up with more rain in my gauge than the person that reports the rainfall for Arlington that is recorded in the newspaper. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it, it was a rainy October in Arlington.

Halloween 2009

I thought it would be fun to do something to surprise Saben and Annika when we arrived at their house for Halloween. I told Kari to be sure to have Saben open the door for us when we got there because we would be wearing "Groucho" glasses. Saben wasn't quite sure what to think and Annika stayed in the living room and didn't want to come near us while we had them on. I knelt down in front of Saben, while I was still wearing the glasses and asked hime for a kiss. He started toward me, then abruptly stopped and said "No, way!" I can't say that I blamed him.
We were able to get a picture of Seth wearing the glasses, but barely got it taken before he grabbed them and took them off. A friend that saw the 2 pictures above, said that's the way grandkids look when the grandparents look like that.
Saben was so excited about his alien costume.
Kyle was instrumental in Annika's hair style.

The Mario Brothers.

Finishing touches being given to the punk rocker.

Costumes completed, ready to go get the candy in the downtown Bellingham stores. I have gone with Kari to trick or treat in the stores in town every year for 4 years and this year, by far, had the most people participating. Several stores actually ran out of candy.

The Mario brothers captured the heart of this princess!