Turkey Day '09

Holidays are incredibly fun with two preschoolers running around the house. They get terribly excited about anything holiday-oriented. Last week, the dynamic duo cooked their pretend Thanksgiving dinner (complete with such tasty treats as egg pie and turkey pudding) no less than 59 times in anticipation of the actual turkey day.

The week leading up to Thanksgiving both children had a feast at school. Neither child wanted their picture made in their festive headdress and vest after said festivities. However, I can tell you that when all the little two year olds came marching out of the school building on feast day, there was a tiny sea of little heads sporting blue, red, green and yellow feathers. Then, there was one little head sporting hot pink feathers. I'll let you guess who that little head belonged to.

Isaac has recently learned how to pose for pictures with a hand in the pocket and a crossed-over foot. He thinks it is pretty awesome. This is last year's Thanksgiving feast costume (why he would wear this for a picture and not this year's version is beyond me) with this year's awesome pose. The Saturday before Thanksgiving we loaded up the family station wagon and set off to visit my parents. The children are pretty good travelers and can entertain themselves with minimal fuss in the car. I always tote along our portable DVD player, but attempt to hold off on movies until the last portion of the trip. About hour four into our trek, I realized that I had forgotten the car adaptor to the DVD player and the battery had not been charged. The promises of watching a movie were quickly retracted as I attempted to explain that 1. Mommies make mistakes too and 2. Turning around and driving four hours back home to retrieve the missing part was not practical. The kids accepted their movie-less fate. Isaac proceeded to work in workbooks the remainder of the trip (and figured out multiplication in the process) while Evelyn entertained herself by putting goldfish crackers in an empty crayon bag and singing.

We settled in for our week-long stay at my parents' house. The kids love playing with all the new-to-them toys and spending time on Nanny and PopPop's playground. Evelyn discovered that she is no longer afraid of the Jacuzzi tub nor of the vacuum cleaner and that she does indeed like to eat rolls (She has had a bread aversion until now). Isaac learned how to play tic tac toe and became quite the pro at it.

Here is Isaac teaching his two year old sister the ins and outs of tic tac toe:

After spending a few days doing a lot of nothing, Thanksgiving Day was finally upon us. I attempted to promote the magic that is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade but the children (and I) were completely bored by the constant interviews and only slight glimpses of the balloons as they floated down Broadway. Their little eyes glazed over as I attempted to explain to them of how the parade used to be back in the days before NBC felt the need to self-promote every 37 seconds.

That morning, we forced the two to sit for some Thanksgiving pictures. Being the fanatical parents that we are, we attempted to get some smiles by making up stories of crazed squirrels looming behind Tobe's head. Before having children I would never have guessed that I would jump around frantically, screeching about a mad squirrel just to get my children to smile. These days, such antics seem perfectly sane.

Motherhood has no pride sometimes..but that is fine with me because look at these sweet faces.

Melt my heart...these two will hate this picture someday but I think it is my reward for being a part of the "2 within 2" crowd.

This year we choose to eat our traditional Thanksgiving meal at lunch. The children asked to be seated next to each other, with Isaac citing that they simply had to have chairs next to each other because they were thankful for each other. How could a parent argue with such logic?

Yes...they had juice boxes and chicken at the Thanksgiving table. I figure one of the aspects about Thanksgiving is eating food one enjoys. Neither child is a fan of turkey, so I was "that" mom who heated up some chicken nuggets to go along with all the Thanksgiving sides. Both were happy with their choices and we have only had one incident of Isaac relaying to a store clerk that he had chicken nuggets on Thanksgiving Day.

A few days before Thanksgiving, Isaac asked me to make him an apple pie. I just cannot resist that little face of his some days, so I obliged.

Behold, my apple pie...

After a tasty lunch and a long nap, the two went outside to "ride bikes and trikes" (their phrase, not mine). Soon riding turned into the game of "Hey, Evelyn, chase me while I ride down the street."
One day Isaac will not have a sidekick always ready and willing to do whatever he asks. Until then, life is pretty good for our boy and his sister.

Friday morning I set out for Black Friday. It is no secret that I love to shop and I love a good bargain. Black Friday was made for people like me. I compiled my list the night before, convinced my mom to join in on the "fun" by bribing her with Starbucks and set the alarm for 4:30am. I have participated in Black Friday sales several times...all of them being in large metropolitan areas. Black Friday in the city is a bit different from Black Friday in small town America.

People were yelling. People were pushing. People were crowding the entrance having a smoke break in the midst of their shopping. One lady shoved me so hard I almost toppled over, simply because she wanted to get to the $3 pajamas before I did (Her plan backfired. I was able to squeeze through a tight area while she was stuck attempting to navigate through a larger aisle).

I managed to get out of that store with minimal scrapes and bruising just in time to scoop my mom up and head out to the larger city and visit some of the other stores on our list. We discovered a Wal-Mart who still had several of the big ticket Black Friday items in stock. I may or may not have convinced my mother to purchase herself a new computer. We then hit the toy store and a few other places before grabbing a quiet lunch and heading home.

Saturday we once again loaded up the family station wagon (with a fully-charged DVD player and a fresh set of workbooks for Isaac) and set off for home, thankful for time spent with friends and family.

How was your Thanksgiving, dear reader? Share the details of your turkey day. Did you serve your children frozen chicken nuggets or eat half of a cherry pie all on your own (or was that just me)?