Hallowe'en

Pumpkin patch

On Monday we went to a little pumpkin patch at a local church. A lot of churches around here use pumpkin patches as fundraisers for their youth groups. Who knew? I still remember when I was 17 and moved to a city after growing up in a little rural town and having no idea at all where people got their pumpkins. Where do you get a pumpkin if there isn't a farm near by. Where I grew up, grocery stores did not sell pumpkins. I'd never seen a pumpkin in a grocery store, ever. And now, we go to a church fundraiser to get them. Weird.

Anyway, we got some pumpkins. (Sorry about the crappy picture quality. Turns out there were finger prints all over the camera lens. I can't imagine why.)

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Eve. I think I like it even more than Christmas. The final preparations, the wrapping, the anticipation. I love it all. I've just finished the wrapping and I had tea this morning with my mamas, groceries are bought (not by me) and everything seems in order. So, I'm going to go poke around some stores. I know that sounds like the most insane idea ever, but I'm going by myself which is a bit of a treat.

Later this afternoon there will be cookie making for Santa Clause. Kate is very excited about the whole thing - although mostly the presents - which I only just explained to her today. Tomorrow will be super fun.

Turkey day!

Today is American Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is one of my favourite holidays, and I love that we get two of them! Today we will spend the day with lots of friends and eat a lot of turkey and pie. There is so much I'm thankful for - Kate being amazing and healthy and funny, Graeme who is the best husband I could ever have, a new baby who is getting bigger every day, a great house to keep us all warm, lots of friends who have become my family when I'm far away from my real family, and my family who even though they are far away are never that far away.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

New York!

We're here! And Karen and John are here! And Kate. Oh well, not exactly as planned. But, still, we're here!

We are staying in a great basement apartment in Brooklyn, just off a street full of a mix of restaurants, shops, hair places, etc. It has a real neighbourhood feel, and it seems like a lot of the neighbours are from the Caribbean. Which means that for dinner tonight we saw a bbq out on the sidewalk with amazing jerk chicken in it. It was awesome. And a whole clamshell of meat was $8. Compare that to the $14 I paid this afternoon for a hamburger and french fries. Yikes. I'll stick with the neighbourhood eats.

This morning, before K&J arrived, we spent the morning wandering around Central Park. We saw the ducks, played at the sand box, watched the turtles and just enjoyed it. Then, we had a pretty awful time finding the apartment, but it was pretty much par for the course for this trip. I'm hoping that all the problems are now done and we can just enjoy the weekend.

After we finally met up with K&J, we headed towards the Brooklyn Bridge. The plan was to walk across, but due to a cranky toddler who woke up way too early this morning, K&J went on their own and we hung out at a park and then played by the waterfront. It was actually really fun, and a good reminder to just slow down and not try to force too much schedule on Kate. To just let her be nearly-2, and enjoy what that means.

Which means we don't have much of a plan for tomorrow. We will go out for breakfast, and then we were talking about maybe going to a museum. The forecast is for rain, so that might be a good idea. Kate had two short naps in the Ergo, so we'll try that again. And tomorrow we'll do a better job of keeping her fed (and me too. We're bad at that when we're travelling).

This is a very disjointed post. Karen wrote a better one, so you can go read it.

Lots to be thankful for

Happy American Thanksgiving! I love celebrating two thanksgivings. And we have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Kate is amazing and healthy and is learning at a crazy rate these days. It's like suddenly she is absorbing things at a whole new pace. She mimics actions and sounds and closely watches everything we do.

Despite the economic downturn, we have our lovely house, Graeme has a secure job and we have everything we need.

This morning, my friend Meredith gave birth to a perfect baby girl. Everyone is doing great.

This afternoon we will enjoy turkey with some great friends.

Erika has been here for a few days and we're having a great visit.


I hope everyone who is celebrating today is having a good day.

Festive Saturday

Today we headed down to South Austin for a festive event - Kate's first introduction to Santa. We didn't go to a mall santa, instead we went to Moxie, and artist's co-op. Kate had just falled asleep right before we got there, yet she didn't seem to mind Santa:



We did a few other errands, and then headed to Artz Rib House, a bbq place we hadn't tried yet. Kate didn't think much of the beef ribs:


We did though. Including Westley, who got a bone when we got home.

Weekend photos

I guess they aren't really weekend photos, since they are from Friday. Thursday was American Thanksgiving. I really love thanksgiving, and it is even more of a family holiday here than in Canada. It seems like everyone loves Turkey Day, and there is a definitely spirit of celebration in the air. People are generous and happy, or so it seems. We went to Howard and Laura Sue's house and celebrated with a great meal and football. We watch football once a year, on Thanksgiving. Well, twice actually, because we watch on both Thursday and Friday. On Friday we went to Sheryl and Jonathan's to watch the UT game and eat leftovers. Yum.

And we still have two more days of the weekend. Yay!

Happy Hallowe'en!