It's good to be with family

Success. Great family, good food, and the house hasn't looked this cleaned up in a long time! D had a great time at his first Thanksgiving feast, and J helped us sing the turkey song to his uncles, aunts and cousins on our phone calls back and forth. The turkey turned out perfectly, and although I forgot the rolls until the end, we definitely weren't short of food! This was a very good day.

Swedish turkey?

Is mine the only husband who thinks that Thanksgiving cooking should be done while blasting "Dancing Queen"? I don't think that the Swedes are particularly into Thanksgiving, or turkey. I blame it on a childhood devoted to the annual Eurovision competition.

Though we do have lefse, which is Scandinavian . . . but Mr. Al bought it, so it is more likely Norwegian lefse. (He says they were out of Danish lefse - Thanksgiving is ruined.)

Preparations are in the early stages:

Getting chilly around here

The weather has set its pattern for the darker months - cold, damp-to-soggy, and all around bleakness. I actually like this type of weather in small doses. Perfect for knitting in front of the (gas) fire, hot chocolate excuses, and without all that blinding sunshine my house looks less dusty. But it is making the boys suffer from cabin fever already. J wants to be out there digging and running and jumping and tricycle riding - drawing letters just doesn't cut it for him. We try indoor dancing and how-many-can-you-run laps around the living room/kitchen/hall circle, but that gets old quicker, and unfortunately Mom can be really unreasonable about long distance couch bouncing. D doesn't mind as much, he's content to follow J around and copy him (shirt off? me too! hopping on one foot? me too! crying because he can't eat Halloween candy for breakfast? me too!) but that can be dangerous for him. If he gets too close or bumps some important J project, D is liable to be punched. We're working on that, but it would be a lot easier to work on it if the sun was shining!

D has started daycare for real this week, after visiting multiple times over the last couple weeks. Three days a week, same as J, and overall it is going as well as can be expected for such a big change in his days. He is very sad when being left, and cries when Roni shows up to pick him up, but phone calls during the day have assured us that he's playing and eating and napping with everyone else in a generally happy manner. Roni picks the two of them up earlier than when it was just J. We'd both like to have him home longer before starting daycare, but Roni has no other options if he is going to go to job fairs and interviews, and we really need Roni to have a job!

Belated Halloween pics for the grandmas: