Hi, Everyone!
After Grandma finished restaining the house, she repainted most of the trim, too. Then she and Grandpa decided that they wanted the front door to be a different color. It’s been the same color for 35 years — a paint color named “Pizza”. Here’s a picture of me in front of the door last winter. Grandma put one coat of the new color paint on, but the pizza color showed through. It took three coats of paint to cover the pizza color! Grandma thinks it took at least two coats of pizza colored paint to cover the color before that, so she wasn’t too surprised. The new color blends in with the rest of the house better and is named Bold Brick. Do you like it? Meanwhile, Grandpa was putting new recessed lights in the kitchen ceiling. I helped him figure out a way to drill the holes so the ceiling pieces didn’t go all over. The new lights have LED bulbs and Grandpa says they use much less energy for the same amount of brightness as our old light bulbs.
Out at Sodus, Grandma used some of the same trim paint she used on the old windows in town to repaint the one window that doesn’t have a vinyl coating on the outside. I was a good helper with the masking tape again!
Then we started getting ready to host the Young Families Dinner Group from church for an afternoon at Sodus. Grandma and Grandpa belong to two dinner groups from church. One is only for grown-ups, and the other one is for families with children and/or little lions. I helped Grandma make a big pot of chili for everybody to eat. We had to chop a lot of onions and peppers to go in the chili, and then it had to cook for two hours! I’m glad we made it a day ahead, because chili always tastes better when the flavors have had a chance to mix.
When the Young Families came, we took them over to Alasa Farms to pick apples in the “you-pick” orchard. The apples were really big, and there were a lot of them on the trees! I helped Grandma pick the apple variety she likes to use to make apple pies.
After we all picked apples, the lady at the orchard said we could take some apples that were on the ground to feed to the horses and goats that live at the farm. Alasa Farms is the home of Cracker Box Palace, where farm animals go to live when their owners can’t take care of them any more. There were horses and donkeys and ponies and goats, and they all like to eat apples! I made friends with some of the goats.
After the Young Families left, Grandpa and I enjoyed a snack of home-made ice cream and chocolate ganache left over from dipping apples.
Today is Rosh Hashanah, the traditional beginning of the new year for Jewish people. The Jewish congregation that shares space in Grandma and Grandpa’s church had a special service last night, so Grandma moved the church choir rehearsal to our house. When all the chairs were set up, I checked to make sure everybody would be able to see Grandma when she conducts. And guess what? Moose-san came for choir rehearsal!
Rosh Hashanah is my third new year since December! First we celebrated on January 1 with some of my best buddies, and then I went to Chinese New Year when Grandma and I were in Thailand. I like learning about the different ways people live their lives!
Love,
Lion-san