Hi, everyone!
There’s been a lot of snow around us, but not much here! We’ve been in between the lake effect bands of snow off Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
Today is above freezing, so what snow we have is melting a little!
The Monday before Thanksgiving, Grandma and I did our shopping for all the food items on our Reverse Advent Calendar. I helped Grandma make a list of what we’d find on each aisle at the store from the Wegman’s website. Then we took our list and a lot of shopping bags to the store! Toothpaste was on Aisle 4, all the baking mixes were on Aisle 8, and almost everything else was on Aisle 9! When we checked out, all our shopping bags were full!
That Wednesday, James and Thomas both had school holidays. Grandma and I invited them over to bake. James wanted to learn to make croissants. Thomas decided to make ice cream base and sticky cookies. They took turns in the kitchen working on their projects! Croissant dough needs to rise for at least five hours after it is made. Grandma made a batch the night before so James could practice all the making and shaping steps on a single day.
While Grandma and James and Thomas and I were baking, Grandpa was working on his own project! He had noticed that our gas water heater was starting to rust, so he bought an electric water heater with a heat pump to replace it. Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara helped him get the new one down to the basement. He was able to switch out the old heater and connect the new one mostly by himself. James and Thomas helped a little bit when they weren’t busy baking.
Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara hosted Thanksgiving dinner. They asked us to bring Brussels sprouts for everybody. I helped Grandma roast some with bacon, then we glazed them with honey and mustard. They were yummy! We all sat at one long table. I watched Aunt Kara carve the turkey. When it was time for dessert, I helped serve the pumpkin pie!
On Friday, Grandma and I put up the rest of the apple tree lights. We had been waiting for our mowing crew to do the final fall leaf cleanup, but we couldn’t wait any longer. Grandpa helped us put up the clothes tree. Then he tied some ropes around the maple tree so we could string the final lights there. Grandma said that since the maple tree shaded out the apple trees that died, it should serve as a replacement for holding the lights!
Saturday was the day before Advent started. That’s when Grandma and Grandpa and my church friends decorated our church for Christmas. I always go along to help! Grandma put the memory birds for Uncle Bill and Timothy and Paul at the top of the tree. This year, someone who was also in the Air Force is being remembered. The pilots are hanging out together. When the Advent wreath was finished, I remembered teaching the candles to stand up straight with Hitsuji-san for Grandma’s Christmas story book about me.
On Sunday, I put the first food item in our Advent basket. Grandma and Grandpa invited Uncle Steven’s family to come for homemade pizza. After dinner, Grandpa asked Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara to help him get the old water heater out of the basement. They put it out by the road and the metal scavengers picked it up the very next day! That Monday was the first day we had any snow, and it didn’t stay around very long!
Monday was also the day Grandma decided to make the gingerbread pieces for James’ and Thomas’ gingerbread house. She let me help mix the dry ingredients together and melt the butter and corn syrup together. Grandma won’t let me squish the dough all together because I’d never get my paws clean if I did! She let me help roll the dough after it rested and cut the pieces from our patterns. After we made all the pieces for the house, we rerolled the scraps and made lots of little gingerbread people.
Monday was December 2, which is the date when we always turn on the apple tree lights to remember Uncle Bill. I was watching when they turned on before it got dark. They look different going to the maple tree, but they’re still pretty!
Today we finished the first week of Advent and the Reverse Advent Calendar. The weather was nice enough to make our annual trip to Alan Franke’s tree farm to get our Christmas tree. We found a nice one right away! Grandma bought a wreath, too. I didn’t get a chance to see our tree being baled up. We brought it home and put it in the garage. Grandma and Grandpa are going to wait to put it up, but we put the wreath up right away! We’re doing a little more decorating, too.
Love,
Lion-san