Friday, November 28, 2008
For Family Home Evening on Monday night, Hunter and I came up with a new twist on an old tradition. Usually, the Monday before Thanksgiving we write down 100 things we're thankful for. But Monday Hunter suggested we do it ABC style and write down one thing for each letter of the alphabet. I loved the idea but I didn't like reducing our list to only 26 things. So I changed it up a little and we did it Scategories style. So we each got a list with the alphabet and ten minutes to write down as many things as we could think of that we're thankful for. Then we took turns reading our lists and we only got points for things no one else had written down. It ended up being really fun and I think we easily came up with more than 100 things we're thankful for.
Monday night I also discovered that the three babies love to string beads. We have some giant wood beads and they spent a good part of the night, stringing them onto a shoestring. So Tuesday, in an attempt to spend some quality time with the babies, we made Native American hats. But instead of stringing giant wood beads we strung small plastic beads. I wasn't sure how the babies would do with their tiny hands and the tiny beads so I taped their yarn to a straightened paperclip for a makeshift, non-sharp needle. It worked! The twins each strung enough beads to make a necklace and Caleb strung two. It was very exciting--little crafty guys. Then I showed them how to dance like Native Americans and how to greet people--"How!" Caleb ate it all up and ran around the house beating his empty hot chocolate canister drum and saying "How" and "Look Daddy, I'm an alien!"
Wednesday Melanie came over and I babysat two of Noah's friends from school and Mark worked from home so our little house really was bulging at the seams. But there's something about our little house stuffed to capacity that makes it feel even homier. I was given the assignment of making Sweet Potato Casserole, Orange Rolls and Pumpkin Roll for Thanksgiving Dinner, so I spent the afternoon making those. Melanie got busy on some Christmas shopping and the kids ran around the house playing this and that.
Denver, Jorge and Stefano decided to run outside and play and disappeared for almost an hour and a half. I went out to check on them occasionally and finally around 5pm it was dark so I called them in. Jorge and Stefano came running into the house with their eyes bugging out of their heads and I asked what the matter was. Stefano said in a whiney, sort of scared voice, "Denver told us that your neighbor over there saws up kids and cooks them for dessert. And he said that your babysitter Vicki (from Fairly Odd Parents) cut Caleb's head off while you were gone and you had to sew it back on. And he said (huge gasp here), 'I hear a saw right now!'" Denver came running behind them both screaming at them not to tell me, half-embarassed he'd been caught traumatizing his friends, half-scared of the consequences of such behavior. Denver, of all people! Later, when we had to tell Stefano's mom what happened Stefano chimed in, "And Denver said their neighbor will make soup out of our butts and all parts of my body!" I'm not sure where Denver came up with this elaborate story. We don't watch this sort of stuff on TV. He says he had a nightmare about it when he was 5. I'm wondering if he's picking this stuff up at school. Either way, looks like my sweet little innocent Denver is not as sweet and innocent as I thought. And looks like maybe we won't be babysitting Stefano anymore. Sorry 'bout that Patricia! And sorry to Melanie too--Jorge refused to go into the basement for the rest of the night. We've tried to get Denver to tell the story to us, since obviously he's a very convincing storyteller, but he refuses telling us he can't remember. Likely story. We finished the night off on a happy note, watching the Muppets Christmas Carol. There's nothing like Kermit the Frog and Tiny Tim to make you forget about murderous neighbors and wicked babysitters plotting to saw you up and make butt soup out of you.
 For Thanksgiving we spent the day at Chris and Cliff's house not doing a whole lot of anything except sitting around, eating and laughing only the way a true Stout can. Chris and I are proud to say Megan has inherited the Stout laugh and does it very well indeed. Cliff tried to keep the kids out of our hair by giving them a million giant boxes to play in but they liked wrestling with him better. Noah played Guitar Hero practically the entire time and Hunter played Spore. I think Mark also addicted himself to the game. We took the kids to the park and ran them around for a bit and returned home just in time for Thanksgiving Dinner. I personally ate way too much and wrestling Megan after dinner didn't help matters. I never did manage to down any pumpkin pie. But Chris made the most delicious turkey ever and my orange rolls and sweet potatoes were pretty dang good too. All in all, we had a very Happy Thanksgiving and we hope y'all did too!
posted by Shana # 7:04 AM 
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