The Annual Giving of Thanks Ceremony

This year we were able to host Thanksgiving for the first time. It was so nice to be able to see our family and to cook my little heart out. I love cooking and it was nice to have an excuse to do it.

Our Thanksgiving started with a pre-Thanksgiving visit from Ryan and his family, to whom Emily tried to transfer her love of Kinect.

For Thanksgiving proper, we were able to have my sister's family as well as my parents, Chris' brother and his dad. Chris' mom was under the weather and she was greatly missed. Nonetheless, we had a lovely time.

Black Friday was a perfect time to christen my parents' new house with a birthday party for Simon and Jane. The kids had a great time playing with cousins and we are so happy they live close enough that we can see them so often.

We topped off the weekend with our town's Christmas parade.

And we remembered how cold it gets sitting on the sidewalk waiting for a parade that starts late. We'll probably forget by next year and go again.

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, it's Back to Work I Go

Yes, that's right, as of December 1st, I will once again be a member of the paid workforce. You may be saying, "But I thought she was going to wait another year". You would be correct in saying that. That was my plan. But things changed and my plans changed with them. The right time to go back became now and I was blessed enough to be able to get a job with the bridge program at the DOT.

What will I be doing? Well, I'll let you know when I get there, but rumor has it I'll be analyzing existing bridges to determine safe carrying loads as well as working with oversize loads permits. Rumor also has it that if I'm a fast talker I'll be doing the occasional design.

How do I feel about this? Kind of sad and disappointed that my time as a stay-at-home mom is over. Kind of nervous and excited about using that ol' degree again. But mainly I just feel like it's the right decision.

What do I not have mixed feelings about? The fact that I had a lovely talk with a maid service today. That's right, I'm not ashamed to admit that I am no longer going to clean my own house. I want to glean every second of time to spend with my husband and kids. They're only young once (both my husband and my kids) and an extra few hours with them every week is absolutely priceless. I'm proud to admit that my priorities are just where the should be. Also, I'm doing a happy dance just thinking about coming home to a clean house.

My reasons for going back to work are very pressing and very personal, but right now I am just very thankful that I can. I'm thankful for my education and my career history (are you listening Emily and Jane?) and for the circumstances that allowed me to find a job in a tough economy.

P.S. I have a feeling that being a super mom won't feel very super (at least at first) so my friends may be subjected to multiple sobbing phone calls before I get this thing figured out. Thanks and I love you in advance.

Emily and Jane and the Not-So-Deathly Hallows

Halloween with small children is quite a production. To them, it takes second place only to Christmas. Halloween is holds a special place in the hearts of the young for one reason: the currency of the day is candy, candy and more candy. Oh, and they get to dress up. But that's just a sidenote to the candy.

Another highlight of Halloween has to do with scooping the guts out of giant squashes and carving pictures into them.

Daddy and Jane did the angry bird, Mom and Emily did the other two.

This was Emily's first school Halloween party since she was sick last year on party day. I, being the optimist that I am, volunteered to bring cupcakes. I once again have confused my love for baking with a love of decorating baked goods. They're not the same thing, believe me. Nonetheless, we ended up with a couple dozen batlike creatures.

 I was fairly pleased until that evening when their wafer wings began soaking up moisture and breaking. Thanks to Chris making an early morning run to the grocery store, the bats' wings were replaced with smaller, chocolate coated cookies. They kind of ended up looking like goats with fangs or dogs with horns, but the kids were happy. 5 year olds are pretty easy to please when you're talking cupcakes. 

School parties are pretty good fun.

Jane was lucky enough to be an underage participant.

Forget pumpkins and parties, this holiday is all about the candy. Our girls are hardcore trick-or-treaters. None of that pansy trunk-or-treat business for them. They stayed out nearly two and a half hours, trading parental supervision from Mom to Dad halfway through. We didn't get any pictures of them demanding candy, but here is Jane with her haul, chanting, "I want to eat it... I want to eat it..."