Giving thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year! We were able to host friends and family at our home for a beautiful meal and a really nice time. In all, we had 14 adults and nine kids, plus one dog. Cousins flew in from Chicago, friends drove here from New York and Maryland, and the rest of us Virginians were able to get through nasty weather and busy traffic to spend a blessed day together. We do indeed have much to be thankful for. God is so good!



Here's the adult table. I made the napkins myself!











The kid table. This was a fun group! They ranged in age from four to 11 and got along great!

Our gathering sang the Doxology together after my husband offered thanks to God for all our blessings.

5K run

Since his dad seemed to enjoy running the 10-mile race so much, W decided to join him on a 5K run through his grandparents' neighborhood. My sister-in-law and her husband joined the run, too. Everybody did really well, and W was able to finish with a good time: he got done in less than 30 minutes, averaging at about a nine-minute pace per mile.



Here's our little group of cheerleaders, waiting for our runners to come by.






My sister-in-law and her husband appreciated the support of their fans.

Peter and the Starcatchers

I won't spend a lot of time on this particular blog entry since I think I'm probably the last person in the country to read this book, but I did want to take a quick moment and mention this gem. After I got into the book a little, my first thought was, "Dave Barry co-authored this?" You have to give the guy credit - the Dave Barry wit does shine through. It's just not the kind of work he ordinarily does. But it was captivating and quite imaginative. It takes a special person (or people, in this case; the book was written by Barry, Ridley Pearson, and Greg Call) to take the story of Peter Pan and fill in all the blanks with a prequel. Ever wonder how Peter learned to fly? Or where Tinkerbell came from? Just who are the lost boys, anyway? All your questions are answered in Peter and the Starcatchers. You'll even learn the origins of the Loch Ness monster here. Kids all over the place are singing the praises of this book, and I have to join the throng. This one is a winner.

Me today

So, it's not the best photo of me, but it's fairly recent. If you can't tell, this one was taken at Disneyworld, during our breakfast with the princesses. I'm trying to get in touch with old college friends these days and wanted to have a photo of myself on the blog so they can see how much I've changed.

Lost in the magic

I can't tell the complete Disney story without mentioning that we lost J twice during the trip. The first time happened on our first full day there. The night before we had put our cell phone numbers in all the kids' pockets, but we realized as we were making our way to the park the next day that none of the girls had pockets. So, my sister-in-law came up with the idea of writing phone numbers on the kids' hands. Later in the day, as I stood in line for Splash Mountain, I got a phone call from a kind gentleman who said he had found J. I didn't even realize my son was missing! It turns out that J got distracted sometime between the headcount on the way to Splash Mountain and the time we got in line. When he realized he was lost, J pulled out his map and started making his way to our designated meeting point, looking for a Disney employee along the way along the way. He was following our "if you get lost" instructions very precisely, but he still felt frightened. A family noticed a young boy looking at a map, appearing very scared, and asked if he needed help. J decided that since the family had kids of their own with them, he could probably trust them. He showed them the cell phone number on his hand, and they gave us a call. J said the mom of the group thought our idea was such a good one that she wrote her own cell phone number on her kids' hands while they waited for me to find them. It was so good to see my little lost boy again! Of course, he got separated from our group two days later, but I soon realized he was missing. I got a call from a Disney employee five minutes later and was quickly reunited with J.

I've included photos of the kids' hands, though I did block out the actual numbers since the photos are out here on the Web.

Disneyworld

We decided the kids are all just the right ages to make a Disney trip. The oldest turned eleven while we were there, and the youngest turned six the week before we left. We have wanted to do this for such a long time! So, we took a week off from school and work and went during the off-season, when the lines were shorter and rates were cheaper. It was great! My sister and her family joined us, and my husband's sister and her family also came along. There were thirteen of us in all, including seven kids. The youngest was four and the oldest was twelve.

There are tons of stories I could tell, but I don't want to have a blog with nothing but Disney, so I'll just share a few of the highlights in pictures.


Here are our four little princesses, all ready to go have breakfast with Belle, Snow White, Mulan, Jasmine, and Sleeping Beauty. This was one of the highlights of the trip for the younger group.

The Aerosmith Rocking Rollercoaster was a big hit with the older kids.


J was called to the stage to participate in a bird show at Animal Kingdom. They needed "a boy between the ages of eight and ten who is good in math."




W chose pirate mouse ears as his souvenir.


M got to meet the big guy himself.

We had sooooo much fun! I thought we would get a little tired of all the magic, but we really didn't. There were tears when it was time to leave Florida and fly back home. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to do all the princess stuff with my daughter, ride the Tower of Terror with my boys, and see my kids have the time of their lives. I especially enjoyed having both my sister and sister-in-law together with their families. All the cousins got along splendidly. It occurred to me that I had all my nieces together in one place at the same time for the first time in my life. I have three nephews who didn't join us, either because they were too young or thought they were too old (my oldest nephew is 18). Maybe one day we'll be able to get the whole family together, even if Mickey Mouse doesn't join us.

A couple of books

I realize I'm waaaay behind on blogging lately, due mostly to a recent family trip (more entries on that soon), but I did want to take a moment and post about a couple of children's books I read recently.



The first one is called The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, originally published in 1961. I usually have a pretty good radar and can seek out quality children's books, but this one somehow got by me. I had never heard of it until W came home with it as assigned reading in his fifth grade advanced reading group. This is a gem of a little book that is rich in figurative language and vocabulary. It is the thought-provoking story of Milo, a little boy who takes off on a journey into worlds he never knew existed. Eventually he is tasked with saving Dictionopolis (the city of words) and Digitopolis (the city of numbers) by rescuing two princesses named Rhyme and Reason. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? I love how figures of speech come alive with such literal meaning in this book. For instance, there is a "watchdog" named Tock who accompanies Miles on his journey. Tock has a clock where his belly would be and is in charge of guarding against people who waste or kill time. Then there's the Spelling Bee, who buzzes around annoyingly, and the land of the Doldrums, where Miles regrettably finds himself when he doesn't think. The author had a lot of fun with things like "eating your words" and the "whetherman." I think my favorite one was the vehicle that "goes without saying" (just be quiet and the car will move). Anyway, it's a sweet story with great literary quality. It will make your kids think.



Secondly, I did make it through another Newberry book a few weeks ago. The Midwife's Apprentice, by Karen Cushman, is a good book, but it's in the young adult section for a reason. The characters and situations are harsh and often cruel. Still, one can't help but root for the heroine, an orphan without a name or a home who eventually finds a name and a place for herself in medieval England. The book gives readers a glimpse into the superstitions and survival mentality of the era, complete with all the sights, smells, and struggles one needs to imagine what it must have really been like at the time. It made me think of how The Witch of Blackbird Pond placed me right in the middle of a Puritan colonial settlement. I do recommend The Midwife's Apprentice for more mature readers; I think my eleven-year-old could handle it, but he wouldn't appreciate it quite yet. Maybe if he were a girl ... I don't know. I think it's a book that would have stuck with me had I read it at about the age of 13.