A Thankful Recap, part 1

We are back from a long weekend with the family near Chattanooga. The drive took longer than normal (holiday traffic) and we arrived Wednesday evening, ready for a later supper and bed.


Thursday morning was spent helping a little bit around the house, prepping for the dinner that evening, and waiting for my nieces and nephew to arrive, to help decorate a cake, and eat our Thanksgiving dinner.


(click on the pictures to make them bigger.)










Lunch on Thanksgiving day. We had Thanksgiving dinner at around 6 p.m., which I like. I don't get eating the Thanksgiving meal at lunch. Wouldn't you just call that "Thanksgiving lunch?"





Isabel and her grandpa dance some calories away.




My brother-in-law holding his puppy Ripley as if she were a baby. It's so funny - she doesn't complain. He's been doing it since she was a weeee pup and now she just sits there patiently.










The cousins arrive. Isabel looks like a hobo because I dressed her in clothes she could ruin, in case they got themselves dirty with the food coloring.



The girls first made tiaras. Then they helped decorate the cake with me, at which time I took zero pictures. These next two were taken by my sister-in-law Jennifer.





The girls and their matching aprons, made by great-grandma Arlene over a year ago.



Work it! I thought for a moment that the fondant was not going to work. It was so HOT in the kitchen from all the people, the oven, the stove, etc. that it was sticking. But we prevailed. The girls helped color the fondant and gumpaste, and they shaped peas, cherries, plates, silverware, pie pieces and...voila!



Our Thanksgiving Dinner cake! (which was dry cause it was 2 days old and I overbaked. LOL)

I have no pictures of the meal itself. Bad me. Isabel went to her first sleep-over ever at her cousins' house and had a great time.

Friday morning, my mother-in-law, father-in-law, grandmother-in-law and I went out to do some minor shopping. We did not leave at 4 a.m. like you crazy black Friday shopping people. We were out for maybe two hours and then went to get Isabel at her aunt's house.

That evening, after dinner with my brother-in-law at a Mexican joint, we headed to the water at downtown Chattanooga, where two of Isabel's cousins would be performing a dance at a holiday event being held by the city.

It was COLD and I did not pack us anything remotely warm enough! Isabel complained the entire time we were there that she was freezing and we ended up carrying her most of the time.









They had boats going up and down the river.




They had a Nativity scene.




We watched the girls do one number and then, not knowing how many more there would be, we skedaddled because we were freezing.

Buffy the Vampire Slaying Penguin

Don't mess with a vampire-slaying penguin. Edward, you've been warned.

Ornament # 2 from the Buffyfest ornament exchange was received from a crafty gal from PA late yesterday afternoon. Thanks!!

My First Buffyfest Ornament!

Wh00t! Last night I received my first ornament from the Buffyfest Ornament Swap 2009.




It's a miniature of one of the Buffy Season 8 comics, by Michelle, one of the Buffyfest contributors. I should have taken a picture of the back cover. Drat, I'll need to remember. It has a few blank pages in it and I am almost tempted to stamp in it. LOL!






Sweeeeeet!

'Ormaments,' Whedon-Style

Yes, I know it's misspelled. It's how my kids both said the word ornaments as kids.


I joined an ornament exchange over at Buffyfest. You get put into a group of 6-7 people and make Whedon-related ornaments.



I decided to merge my stamp-carving skills from Letterboxing with my slight *cough* Whedon obsession and made stamp ornaments.




Here they are. The Grrr Arrgh Mutant Enemy Logo, the Angel Investigations logo, the Buffy logo, Captain Hammer's logo, a carve of Echo from 'Dollhouse' and the Blue Sun logo from Firefly. What you are seeing is one side of the ornaments, with the actual images that the recipients will get when they use the stamps on the back.




Here are the back of the ornaments with the actual stamps. Captain Hammer and Echo.







The Blue Sun logo.






The Mutant Enemy, Angel and Buffy carves.










I wrote a little letter to the recipients and then on the backs of each one, stamped all 6 images, so everyone can see what they all were.

I hope everyone enjoys them. I cannot WAIT to see what I get!!

Innocence

Our little girl was sick all day yesterday. It started after a breakfast of french toast. She complained about her stomach aching and 10 minutes after giving her a small dose of Pepto, she ran to the garbage can in the kitchen to throw up. I went to her and held her hair back, while she looked up at me with her beautiful, beautiful blue eyes, teary and large. It broke my heart.

She got sick two more time, once not making it wholly into the small garbage can I set next to the couch for her. She took a 2 hour nap and woke up hungry, so we fed her. A few hours later, in her pj's watching a movie in one of the guest rooms, she started throwing up, again looking at me with those imploring eyes, wanting her momma to make it better.

I slept with her in the guest room that night. Both her and my bed are way tall and to get to a garbage can from their heights is quite impossible for her. The bed in guest room # 2 is actually just the top mattress on the floor; easy reach to the can.

I lay with her and tried to sleep. I kept seeing those big eyes. Then, another image flashed in my mind. The same big, teary eyes, black this time, looking up at me.

Twelve years ago, my ex and I were having a fight in the kitchen of our rental duplex. My then 3-year-old son walks into the kitchen to ask something. His father SCREAMS at the top of his lungs for my son to GET OUT, and he opens the front door, shoves him out and slams it. I am in shock. I run to the door as I scream "What is WRONG with you?!?! He's THREE!"

I open the front door to find my baby boy trying to breathe, staring at the closed door. He's hiccuping and unable to cry from the shock. His big black eyes look up at me and his body shakes. I scoop him up and hug him so tight. I soothe his back and say "It's OK, mommy's here, mommy's here," and he starts to sob.

(Wow, I'm crying as I type.)

I left that place with my son a few months later.

They are so innocent, children. They look to us, with those big (black, blue) eyes, to be their guardian angels. Nothing can go wrong when mom and dad are around.

Her big blue imploring eyes reminded me of his big black imploring eyes, and I silently cried as I rubbed her back, praying for healing in her body and in my memory.