The chest of drawers was made by my dad shortly after I was born. It is beautiful. I keep small things like socks, underwear, bathing suits, and exercise clothes in it. Holly, you can probably make out one of the wine glasses that you gave us on top of it. Xander is currently keeping his m&m's in it.

Xander and I went to see The Wiggles tonight with Pam and Brantley. Remind me not to take him to any more live shows. He was bored, and said, "This movie is too long." He wanted to leave after about three songs. He also said that it was too loud. I agree! He did run into the aisle in hopes of touching Anthony (the blue one), but simply got to stand within a few feet of him. He was disappointed. It broke my heart a little.

He really wanted to hear "Play Your Guitar with Murray", and asked during each song break if the next one would be "Play Your Guitar With Murray". Luckily, they did play it. He had taken his red Wiggles guitar that Holly had given him into the concert with him, so he pulled that out and held it while the song was playing. That toy is one of the favorites of both Kayli and Xander, Holly. Excellent gift!

I thought last year's disinterest in Sesame Street Live was due to the fact that he had never seen Sesame Street. He's definitely seen the Wiggles, so I guess he just doesn't like live shows. Me neither, so I'm happy we discovered this now.

Kayli is an entire year old! Unbelievable. In honor of her pizza interruptus arrival last year, we ordered Papa John's Pizza for dinner tonight, just like we had done right before I dragged Travis away from it to go to the hospital.

Read her November Update!

I've started doing Scavenger Hunts every day after naptime for Xander. He loves them! I write locations in the house on ten Post-It notes and put them all over the house. Then I give him the first one, and he reads it and goes to the next place to get the next clue. At the end, he finds a Post-It that says, "The End" and he usually gets a reasonably healthy but exciting treat of some sort. It is a lot of fun. He gets SO excited about it. He runs from place to place searching for the clues.

I use a different color Post-It note each day, and he leaves the clues in the appropriate place after he finds the next one, so his bunk bed currently has four or five sticky notes on it that say "bunk bed". He's pretty good at sounding out the words and figuring out where to go next, but I still help him often. I'm using the same locations most of the time, right now, but I usually throw in one or two new ones each day.

I've been very impressed with how quickly he's caught on to reading and sounding things out. We've been working on it a lot lately. I love focused play, rather than just imaginative play (I really cannot play "machines" any more), so I've been re-energized by this new direction our play can take. I always loved scavenger hunts as a child, so I'm pretty excited about this!

The picture in which he's standing all over his books, strewn all over the floor, is the result of a search for the next clue after following "books". I hadn't actually hidden it IN the bookshelf, but I guess he missed it, so he pulled every book off the shelf, searching for it. *sigh* Then I cleaned them all up and took a picture so I can remember what books he had at this stage.

As we probably will do for her entire life, we held Kayli's birthday party during Thanksgiving (Xander's will always be during our Easter gathering , so I guess it is fair). My dad decorated a cake for her with Piglet on it. I'm so lucky to have an artist for a dad! He had made a cake for Xander's first birthday with the Very Hungry Caterpillar on it. Kayli was unimpressed by the cake, unfortunately, and eschewed it to gnaw on grapes instead. So, no messy cake eating pictures.

Most people enjoyed Sheryl's apple pie with ice cream while Kayli (well, Xander) blew out her candle. Then we opened some presents for Kayli. Little kids get such cute stuff! She got a cute preppy dress from the Howards for her to wear next summer, along with a water mat that she now carries around like a carpet bag. Aunt Rebecca gave her a cute hat and mittens for the winter, snuggly slippers to wear around the house, and Peek-A-Blocks, which she and Xander both love. My parents gave her a bib, mix and match clothes, and a piggy bank that sings and talks when you put (fake) money in. That is pretty funny.

I hosted Thanksgiving, as usual, for Travis's family and my family. There were 14 people here, total, including the kids. Attending were my mom and dad, my aunt Rebecca, my aunt Nancy, my uncle Randy, my cousin Brett, Travis's mom and dad, Travis's brother Ryan and Ryan's girlfriend Al. Amazingly, I managed to not get stressed out at all. It was a very relaxing day.

In the morning, we put the kids into my grandparents' turkey roaster and took pictures of them while my mom sang a song that she made up about being a turkey in a turkey roaster. Xander laughed and laughed at my mom. They had taken a picture of my dad in a turkey roaster (but not this one) when he was little, so it was appropriate to get pictures of our kids in one.

It was a gorgeous day outside, so we put up our card table on the deck (having just brought our patio furniture in last week) and we all spent most of our time out there. Who thought it would be 65 on Thanksgiving day? The kids had a great time outside, and the rest of us enjoyed basking in the sun and snacking on shrimp, cheese and crackers, and tortilla chips and salsa. Food food food.

I cooked the 20 pound turkey for almost 3 hours at 500 degrees, well tented, and it turned out great. Very moist and tender. My aunt Rebecca made mashed potatoes. Travis's mom made gravy and stuffing and apple pie for dessert. My mom made dressing, yams, and cranberry sauce. My aunt Nancy brought shrimp for appetizers. Mmm! All in all, it was delicious!

We had Kayli's Birthday Party after everyone had relaxed a little after dinner. You can see pictures of that here.

At night, we played cards. Yay, cards! People shuffled in and out of a Texas Hold'em game for an hour or two. I'm still unclear about who came out ahead, but it was fun. Brett, my mom, my dad, Randy and I all played Spoons after that, and it was a rolicking good time! We were laughing and laughing! My dad and I were the big winners there. Maybe he can play Spoons at the casino instead of Texas Hold'Em. Then we played Jungle Speed, which led to more hilarity and confusion. Fun! Everyone else inexplicably watched television or chatted instead, except Travis who wandered by occasionally grab at a spoon to inject a little more excitement into the game.

Another beautiful day! The guys (including Xander) pulled a bunch of black maple out of the gully and put it in Ronnie's trailer so he can make some boxes out of it. Xander loved helping, of course. Then the guys all went to play racqetball (not including Xander). The women sat around outside again today, chatting and snacking. I was pretty tired, I admit, so I rested a bit. I didn't run around quite as much as the previous day. My mom and Becky took Kayli for a walk and she conked right out in the stroller. She's never done that for me. Then again, I don't usually take her out in the stroller, so I can't complain.

The Dooms left around 5:00. My mom and I went to Joann Fabric to get the vinyl and the padding for the chair project. We redid one chair, just to see how hard it would be. Not hard at all, it turns out. After that, we all relaxed. My mom relaxed a lot, on the couch, while we sat around her. OK, really she was sleeping. She loves to sleep on couches, but can't ever sleep when she goes to bed. I don't know why she doesn't just stay on the couch.

First thing in the morning (for her if not for me) my aunt Rebecca and I went over to Joann Fabrics to use the 50% coupon to buy the rest of the padding for the chairs. Then we went to Kohl's so I could do a price adjustment, and Becky ended up buying the same coat that I bought the day before. Now we're coat twins just like Becky and Bath! We're pretty cute, aren't we? On the way home, we looked at some condos in the area, just for fun. Hopefully Becky will move down here!

Kayli has learned to hit a t-ball. She uses the wrong end of the bat, and the ball just plops down from the tee, but she has the idea. My dad and Xander carved one of our pumpkins from Halloween. Surprisingly, it wasn't rotten at all! We even cooked the seeds!

My aunt Debbie asked to see how I had our dining room chairs re-upholstered, so I took some pictures for her. All of our dining room furniture belonged to my grandparents. I received it when they moved out of their house in 2002.

Thanksgiving is really my grandparents' holiday in our house. We host Thanksgiving for my family and Travis's family, and we eat in the dining room at their table, surrounded by their buffet and china cabinet. We always use their Thanksgiving platter to serve the turkey. This year, we used their silverware for the first time. Nancy was happy to wash it afterwards. We also used the silver shrimp dish that you kids gave them for their 25th wedding anniversary. Now my grandpa's black elephant is nestled next to the china cabinet and the cross-stitch that hung in their dining room hangs in mine, visible through the doorway from the kitchen and the family room. You can also see that the sconces that hung on either side of the hutch are on the wall to the living room.

In the living room through that wall, you can see Grandma and Grandpa's green chairs that they bought to take to Countryside. Also, the Christmas tree on the piano was theirs. Xander loves that, and insists on turning out all the lights (in the entire house) so we can enjoy it.

I cherish all of their belongings that I have. I think about them all the time, and I love being surrounded by their things. It isn't in any way as good as being with them, but it is as close as I can get. I miss them.