Thanksgiving, Advent

We had a delightful Thanksgiving, full of opportunities to stay out too late and skip nap time, which made for an interesting first day back at school today.  Evie had school on Monday and Tuesday and then was out the rest of the week.  Monday when I took her to school she was asking me to explain what a soul was.  I tried to explain that it's not a certain part of your body, but it's inside you and you can't see it.  She said, "Oh.... I think it's boogers."

Tuesday we had dinner and Granna and Grannadaddy's per usual.  Wednesday Evie played at home while I worked a little and then we got food ready for Thanksgiving.  She helped me make a strawberry layer dessert and cole slaw.  She really enjoys helping out in the kitchen.  Then we went to see Moana in the movie theatre.  I wasn't much of a movie-goer before I met Seth, but it's become one of my favorite things to go to the movies with him, and now that Evie is old enough, I love our family movie outings.  Here she is posing with the huge character display in the theatre.

Wednesday night I used Evie's new curlers to see if we could actually get her hair to curl at all since a hot curling iron didn't work when I tried it a few months ago.  You can see from these Thanksgiving family pictures that the overnight curlers did the trick.

Thursday morning I went to my parents' to meet my dad to go to an episcopal church for their Thanksgiving service, a tradition we started several years ago and that I am glad we keep up with.  Seth drove Evie to our church for Thanksgiving lunch, which is where Dad and I headed once the service was over.  We had lunch with several church members and their extended families, and Grandma Jeanne, Kathy, Rickie, Tia, and one of Tia's friends, Ali.  It had been 5 months since we had seen Tia and I was only slightly surprised that I started crying when I hugged her and not at all surprised that Evie took to her immediately, as though she sees her all the time.

After lunch we went to the Big House and Tia, Ali, Evie, and I decorated gingerbread houses since we weren't sure if that was something we'd get a chance to do at Christmas.  Mostly Evie just wanted to eat the candy.

Then we went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt Kristy and her family.  It was unusual not to have our big family get-together with mom's side, but the other 3 siblings were out of town so it was just the ten of us and that was nice too.  Evie enjoyed playing restaurant with Lydia, Aiden, and Zach, and it was nice to catch up with my aunt and uncle.

Evie got no nap that day and we stayed very late so I thought she would sleep in on Friday, but she didn't.  We went to the Tigers game with my parents and Evie was so sleepy that at one point she spread out the stadium blanket on the floor of our row of seats and covered herself up to try to nap.  She did enjoy her last cotton candy of the season, though, and the new Tiger earmuffs Granna bought her.

Friday night, Evie stayed at my parents' house and played with her cousins some more while I went to meet up with my high school friends for dinner.  Another day with little nap and staying out super late.  I thought for sure she'd sleep in Saturday, but no.

That was fine because we went to the Big House for breakfast and Evie stayed there while I met another friend from out of town for coffee.  Evie got to play with Tia some more and Tia also introduced Evie to the Swan Lake ballet which resulted in the following video.  It reminded both me and Tia of the many performances she and I put on for our family when we were children.

We came home and put up the Christmas decorations.  We hung our stockings and got the Advent wreath ready.  Then Evie went to spend the night at Granna and Grannadaddy's house.

Yesterday was the first Sunday in Advent, so we did our Advent wreath observation right before bedtime.  Evie enjoyed helping me light the candle, but she was so sleepy that she didn't really participate in much else.

Today we got the tree set up and did the lights and ball ornaments and left the special ornaments for another night when Seth could be there.  Evie decided that our Christmas tree theme would be purple and gold this year, not the greens and golds we did last year.  And she enjoyed playing with her Little People manger scene.

I can't believe how much taller she is this year.

A language funny: we were playing her new favorite pretend game where she pretends to call me to ask me to come babysit for her and her husband (Desmond) while they go out of town on a trip.  I end up asking her lots of questions about how many kids they have, how old the kids are, what I need to do to take care of them, whether I have to take care of any pets too, etc.  I asked her where she and Desmond were going and she said, "New Ork".  I asked her why they were going there and she said, "To find some tramps."  Putting aside the fact that New York City is a perfectly reasonable place to expect to find some tramps, I asked her what tramps were and she said, "You know, like Lady and the Tramp?"

A memory moment: Going through Christmas decorations, Evie came upon one that she made last year when we had an ornament making day with the little girls in the family, Granna, Aunt Linda, Kristy, and Ginny.  She said she remembered making it and then said, "And why someone step on mine?"  And then I remembered that she had made another type of ornament that accidentally got stepped on that day and she had to make another one to replace it.  One year ago!!!!!!!

A political/social statement: Evie told my mom, "I wanted Hillary Clinton to win."  Then she asked, "Do you think the boys will always beat the girls?"  It breaks my heart.

A sentimental observation: We have a new couple at church and the wife is named Evelyn (ee-vuh-lyn as opposed to our eh-vuh-lyn) and she goes by Eve.  The first Sunday they visited, Evie went up to them and introduced herself and enjoyed the fact that she had Eve have similar sounding names.  Every Sunday since, that couple has said how much they enjoy seeing Evie and how welcome Evie has made them feel and how she influenced their decision to join our church.  My daughter is absolutely amazing.  She charms everyone.