Thanksgiving

A fantastic Thanksgiving: My parents, Larry and Virginia, drove in to spend the long holiday weekend with us.  Erick, Evangeline and Skylar joined us for a relaxed dinner.

We spent the morning watching the Macy's parade and preparing for the big dinner.  Mom peeled apples for pie and help put together the pumpkin pie.  Susan made a fantastic Waldorf salad.  The smell of roasting Turkey filled the house.

Yesterday, we pulled up the Christmas boxes from the basement and decorated for the big holiday before heading to the playground with Skylar for the afternoon.

Skylar's had a ball on the swing with great grandpa pushing

Granny took her favorite great grand daughter down the slide

Mom and Dad mugging for camera at the park entrance

Toodling out near the amphitheater!

Random November Thoughts

The past week in Connecticut has been fair and unseasonably warm.  Today was no exception.  It seemed like the perfect opportunity to rake the leaves and clean up the yard a bit.  We continue to clear tree branches from our yard, putting them out by the street for the city to come get them.  Simsbury says that they're up to the task of gathering all the stuff left by the storm, but I doubt they will actually get everything collected before it snows.

Ah memories.   Here we are gathered around the firepit cooking stew!

Hannah celebrated her 17th birthday with a small party for friends.  She tricked out the downstairs with a strobe light and invited a friend to DJ the event.  They proceeded to crank the volume until his subwoofer just gave up the ghost and quit.  I felt bad for him.

Skylar started walking suddenly a few weeks ago.  This is traditionally the way that it happens but surprising anyways.  Overnight she changed from a crawling baby to a toodling toddler.  Now would probably be a good time to really make sure that the house is really baby proofed.

Skylar also celebrated her first birthday on November, smack in the middle of the power outage.  We had a small candle light celebration for her.  A large one with electricity and heat was held on November.  Susan and I gave her a 4' tall mini mouse.  It was just one of the cool things that she received; the kid made out like a bandit.

My mom, who also celebrated her birthday on 11/15, and Dad are coming up for Thanksgiving.  We'll have a good time.  Hopefully we'll have a chance to spend a little time at Simsbury Celebrates, the traditional local kick off to the holiday season.

October Storm 2011

This past week has been one for the record books.  12 inches of heavy wet snow fell last Saturday weighing down trees that had not lost their leaves and snapping branches.

Power lines fell as trees crashed down.  More than 700,000 customers lost power.  Grocery stores went dark, gas stations could not pump gas.  It was bad.  Thank god we had a fire pit and camping gear. 

Erick, Evangeline, and Skylar came over.   All told we were without power for almost six days with evening temperatures in the low 20s.  I'm proud to say that no one went hungry.  We used the dead wood that fell in the fire pit to cook breakfast and dinner.   We had pancakes, coffee, stew, mac and cheese, and all kind of other yummies.

In the evenings we sat around and listened to the hand crank radio.  Most nights we were in bed by 8.  Something about cutting wood, tending fires, being perpetually cold and no TV makes you tired. 

The town opened a shelter at the high school where folks could get warm, eat, shower and charge cell phones.  Susan and Hannah went there for showers daily.  Ladies showers were private, the men's public.  I took baths in buckets of water heated over the fire.

We have power tonight but do not yet have cable, internet or phone.   Many in Simsbury are still without power.