Hi, everyone!
Thanksgiving was early this year, but our first real snowstorm was even earlier! Grandpa didn’t even have the snow gauge up yet! Right after we got the snow, we had a visit from a deer family. They walked right across our backyard and jumped our rail fence to leave. Grandma was surprised! Now that most of our backyard is bordered by our neighbors’ fences, she didn’t think deer would find a way in! When the weather warmed up a little bit, I helped Grandma put the lights on the apple trees. This year Grandma added two new strings of lights. She told me there were now 1400 lights on the apple trees!
We had two Thanksgivings! First, we had our usual Thursday Thanksgiving dinner with Joe-san and Nancy-san. I helped Grandma bake the apple pie we always take. This year, Grandma made the sweet potatoes with ricotta and sage according to a recipe Joe-san wanted to try. Then she also made a shredded Brussels sprouts salad with pine nuts and dried cranberries. Grandma let me help shred the Brussels sprouts, but I had to be VERY careful with my paws around the mandolin slicer!
When we got to Joe-san and Nancy-san’s house, Tilly and Moose-san were all ready to serve appetizers. They were yummy! Then we made sure the turkey was done properly. After dinner, we served the apple pie and Nancy-san’s plum pudding for dessert.
Grandma and Grandpa helped clean up after dinner and package up the leftovers. We couldn’t take any turkey home, because we were leaving the next day for another Thanksgiving, with Uncle David’s family in Ottawa! Uncle Steven’s family and we all drove up in Grandpa’s new car. It was a cozy ride, but we all fit! Canadians celebrated their Thanksgiving over a month ago, so we didn’t have a lot holiday traffic on the route. I was happy to see Bill when we got there! We went to a pizza place for supper, then watched Peanuts Thanksgiving television specials to get in the mood. All the cousins were sleeping together in the lower level. Aunt Kara brought along big air mattresses for the floor and I helped inflate them. Uncle Steven helped James and Bill play a racing game by setting up their controllers to start together. Thomas really enjoyed playing with Bill and Karin’s marble run. It’s way more complicated than the one Grandma and Grandpa have!
On Saturday morning, I helped Uncle David make the stuffing for the turkey. Then I checked to see whether the turkey was ready. Uncle David put it in a cooler on the deck for three days to thaw! Uncle David wanted thyme from his garden to put on the turkey, so Aunt Kara went out in the snow in the back yard to get some!
Once all the advance preparations were done, we went on a expedition to get beavertails! Beavertails are an Ottawa food specialty. They are long pieces of fried bread with sweet toppings. We went to Byward Market to find them! There were lots of choices! The beavertails with chocolate on them were VERY gooey and floppy! We tried various ways to eat them, but Grandma figured out that folding them lengthwise made the least mess! The beavertail shop was right across the street from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate store, so we stopped there before we went home to start cooking dinner!
While the turkey was roasting, Karin and James went out to work on the snow fort in the back yard. Thomas went out to help them, too, and Bill finally joined the crew. They used buckets to make packed snow cylinders to stack on top of each other. I decided to stay inside and help make mashed potatoes instead of snow forts!
The second turkey of the weekend was cooked just right, too! The cousins had their own “kids table” for this Thanksgiving dinner. Dessert was one of Grandma’s coffee cheesecakes, by Karin’s special request. Everything was yummy!
After dinner, James and Bill sat down to work on the books they are writing. Karin and Uncle David played on the piano that just got moved. Then everybody watched the movie Coco before bedtime.
On Sunday morning, Uncle David made pancakes for everybody. The weather was a little warmer and the snow fort started falling down! We all got together for another family photo of everybody together. Then it was time to go! I made sure to say goodbye to Karin and Bill before we left. Some of us even got to take naps on the way home!
When we got home, we had to get ready for the carpet cleaners to come last Tuesday. I helped Grandma and Grandpa move the chairs, lamps and small tables out of every room where the carpet was going to be cleaned. When the carpet cleaners came, they laid a big vacuum hose all the way through the house and pulled it back as they finished each room. When they were done, we had nice clean carpets and very steamy windows! On Thursday, Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara helped Grandma and Grandpa move Grandma’s piano back into the space where Uncle David’s piano used to be. Now we’ll have room to put up the Christmas tree!
On Saturday, I helped Grandma and my friend Veronica-chan decorate the Christmas tree at church! The tree was so big that Grandma had to ask the tallest person around to put the Bill and Timothy birds at the top of the tree! While we were decorating the tree, other people were decorating the rest of the church. It’s very pretty! When we got home, Grandma helped me start a reverse Advent calendar. Every day until Christmas, we’ll put something that the local food shelf needs in our calendar box. On Christmas Eve, we’ll take the box and everything in it to church with us to donate.
Today was warm and sunny – almost 60 degrees F.! It was also the day for the lights on the apple trees to turn on for the first time. James and Thomas came over to watch them turn on. Since the weather was so nice, Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara helped Grandma and Grandpa rake the last of the leaves off the lawn. Then we all had pizza for dinner. When it was dark, the apple tree lights were very pretty! Grandma said this year the lights should help us remember both Uncle Bill and President George H.W. Bush, who died on Friday. Uncle Bill marched in President Bush’s inauguration parade and shook President Bush’s hand at Air Force Academy graduation. President Bush talked about “a thousand points of light”, and that’s what we have on our apple trees!
Love,
Lion-san
Lion-san made good use of his Banff Hoodie on this trip!
Lion-san, you are one busy Lion. I’m sure it was very special finally having all
lions and brothers and parents and cousins in one place.
Love,
LaVache
I’m glad you had 2 Thanksgivings. It was nice that you could go to Ottawa. We all went to a hockey game Friday night! The Amerks lost but it was a good game. Did you bring home any chocolate from the Rocky Mountain store? Wow all the carpets did get clean with that long hose. The church did look nice all decorated.