The Day After Turkey

As I’m sure everyone knows, Christmas month officially starts the day after turkey.
We decided there was only one way to usher it in. (Well, two, if you count the time we devoted to Black Friday shopping.) We had to go visit the biggest Christmas store in the U.S. of A. And so, we drove to Frankenmuth, Michigan to spend the day.
We made the right choice. Because not ten minutes after we got out of the car, we spotted a fellow in a big red suit walking around. So we stopped for a minute to tell him all about what we wanted for Christmas. And we were absolutely dumbfounded when he already knew we wanted everything Elmo. Santa is magical.
Telling Santa all about what we wanted for Christmas:

Giving St. Nick a high five:
 
And our timing just kept getting better. We just happened to get to the clock tower five minutes before the big show was starting.
We had to be quiet so that people could hear the story of the pied piper.

A picture of the pied piper leading the children (and the crippled and blind) out of the town.
 
Then we went to eat at the Bavarian Inn. We were lucky that we only had to wait 30 or so minutes for our table. By the time we left, the line was out the door.
Right as we were finishing up our delicious German food, we were serenaded by the accordion. The player was very surprised that the accordion didn’t scare Tennyson. What he doesn’t know is that (1) Tennyson has a strange addiction to all things piano related and (2) Elmo plays accordion in one of the DVDs we watch 20 times a day. So the accordion player hung out at our table for a minute because he was bringing such joy to Tennyson.

And for our walk back to the car after, all the streets were lit up. It really felt like Christmas.

We spent the rest of the night walking around Bronner’s, the biggest Christmas store in the country. It is one of the coolest stores ever. I had never been during the winter months, so it was fun being there when everything outside was lit up and when it actually felt like you should be looking at Christmas decorations.

It was the perfect day and the perfect way to say “Hello, Christmas! So glad you are here!”

A Day of Thanks (and also giving)

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. By far. And not just because it’s a lazy holiday where you do nothing but eat turkey and spend time with family (although all that is great, too). The reason, though, that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday is because it signals the start of what I think is the best month of the year. Christmas. There is no other day of the year that starts with turkey and ends in Santa. Thanksgiving is filled with anticipation and excitement and beginnings. It is when the decorations come up and the shopping begins and the music starts playing on the radio and all the TV specials start playing. You might think I’d say my favorite holiday is Christmas, but Christmas signals the end of the season. Thanksgiving signals the beginning. And that is why I will always love Thanksgiving (well, all that and the pie).
So, it only goes to reason that today was a very special day. And this year was extra special, because Mike and I cooked a Thanksgiving meal for the first time together.
It turned out great. No, more than great. I really have to give most the credit to Mike who studied recipes for about a month in preparation. And who started cooking on Monday. But, oh, did it ever pay off.
Exhibit A, the turkey (before and after):
 
Doesn’t the after look amazing? That’s because it was. A little bit of Mike’s soul went into making this turkey. He brined and seasoned and aromatics-ed and made a little tinfoil turkey triangle. Then we ate it as fast as he could slice.
Exhibit B, the spread:

Mike was in charge of the turkey, potatoes, gravy and cornbread. I did the green bean casserole, the carrots, and the cranberry sauce. I’m glad he trusted me with all those things that the meal would totally be complete without. (Although I must say I made a killer cranberry sauce).
Also, note the Christmas tree behind us. How can you celebrate Thanksgiving and properly usher in the month of Christmas if you aren’t allowed to decorate early? You can’t. You just can’t. I don’t really care what anyone says, Christmas decorations should go up right before Thanksgiving. Not right after.
The saddest part of the day was that Tennyson is working on his next set of four teeth (why this kid insists on always having four come through at the same time, I will never understand) so he’s kind of on a food strike.

So he took a few bites of potatoes and then drank some Thanksgiving juice. Today he got unlimited juice. It was the best holiday he’s ever had (at least in his book).

Then he spent the rest of meal time posing for his myspace profile picture.

I jest, I jest, Tennyson is far too cool for myspace.
In my opinion, every Thanksgiving meal must end with a park and some sort of game involving a ball. It’s an unwritten rule. So off in the wagon we went to our neighborhood park, ball in tow.

And, in the Cawley tradition, we played a pick up game of soccer. Because soccer > football. (And also because I don’t think Tennyson gets the technicalities of football quite like he gets kicking a ball from one place to the next).
  
The game probably would have been more fun if Tennyson didn’t take the “pick up” part so seriously. Oh well.

Thanksgiving is just the best. And now the month of Christmas begins. Life couldn’t be better right now (well, if I’m being honest, 2.0 could be a little more gentle, but I’ll take what I can get).

happy

beginning-of-christmas-month

day.

we hope yours was the best.

Farewell to Autumn

Dear Autumn,

We’ve loved having you around. We are sad that we are going to have to lose you for winter. Can’t you stay forever and ever?

Love,

The Fiskes

P.S… Thanks for all the leaves. They were a lot of fun to play in.

Baby 2.0

We got some pictures of 2.0 today! We went in to get an ultrasound because the doc found the heartbeat higher up than he expected to at our last appointment, so he wanted to get a more accurate due date for us. I didn’t oppose. I was very excited to get an ultrasound. We weren’t supposed to get one until 20 weeks and that seemed (and still seems) like forever away.

The ultrasound made this pregnancy seem more real. It’s hard to believe sometimes that I’m actually going to have another kid. When I was pregnant with Tennyson, I was totally preoccupied with the baby inside me. I think now I’m just to busy chasing that first baby around to have much time to think about this second one. So I am enjoying having pictures to peek at every now and then.

Oh, and it was nice hearing the heartbeat for real this time. Last time we went in to hear the heartbeat, it was really hard to make out over Tennyson’s screams. This time we opted to leave him at a friend’s house so that we could actually focus on what was going on at the doctor’s office. I’m glad we did.

2.0 was measuring 14 weeks (right on track with what we thought) and had a nice healthy heart rate of 138. The heartbeat was strange to hear after being so used to Tennyson’s 165-170 heart rate. I’m hoping that means this baby will be a little less rowdy and rambunctious. Like, really hoping.