Catching Up: Thanksgiving

I am sadly behind on chronicling our present adoption journey, our holiday fun, and the parenting thoughts rattling around in my head of late.  A few reasons - I was sewing.  Sewing presents and buying presents. I was observing advent with imperfect intentionality - something I've never done before. (The intentionality part...I do imperfect all the time.) And I got sick. Well, the whole of the P-Pod has been sick off and on, and right on Christmas Eve and Christmas, too!  I might actually be almost normal tomorrow. And, probably most importantly, I have been living life. Sometimes I feel that the documenting of my life impedes the living of it. There is this awareness and focus now with a child in the picture to really LIVE it. Sometimes this requires a lot of time.

I will try to kick out a few entries this week before 2011 sets in.

THANKSGIVING FUN

In the Eastern Sierra Nevadas, in a tiny town called Aspendell but twenty miles outside of Bishop, there is a cabin. A cabin that was built when I was eight or nine - I'm not sure of the date exactly.

This cabin has born witness to many family adventures, card games too numerous to count, a dozen Thanksgiving turkeys, family friends of all shapes and sizes, and the clutter of wet winter gloves and summertime fishing poles.

This was Benjamin's third visit to this magical place.

We did not go alone. We brought family...cousins, in fact.

We brought my cousin, Sarah, and her husband, two children, and brother-in-law. It was just like old times.

Sort of.

Not really. It's kind of weird being the grown-ups. But it was like old times in that the rooms were filled with chatter and children. The scent of hot meals - pancakes, or pea soup, or roasted turkey and mashed potatoes - filled the air. We congregated.

When the snow came freshly down, we sledded.

The front "yard" is a great place for toddler-sized sled runs.

Not for big people, of course. We sink down into the bushes below the surface. Please don't ask how I know this.

And the street, when covered with 3 inches of snow, is a fabulous ride for people of all sizes. You can ask me about this. I experienced it a few times, in fact.

After getting soaked right through, munchkins returned to the wood-burning-stove warmed living area to partake in some hot cocoa.

Benjamin preferred to lick up the whipped cream. Then he asked for more. "I want more whip cweam, Mama. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease."

Notice the mug. This was from the old photo paper days when my dad was first in the photo lab business. This mug has most likely been at the cabin since the day we first moved into it.

See Benjamin's hands? The placement of his fingers? This is a very Benjamin way to hold something. All his fingers stuck together.

And at the end of the day, the small guys took a warm bubble bath.

Thanksgiving was warm and bright, even in the snow.