Thanksgiving 2009

Some of you might know this and some might not. Meredith was sent home from daycare on the Monday before Thanksgiving with what they thought was Chicken Pox. Meredith has had the vaccine so chances of getting it are pretty low, but I brought her to the doctor and the doctor said that she couldn't give me a note saying they weren't Chicken Pox because that is what it appeared to be. They cut one open and sent it off for testing. She also had an ear infection and they are starting to suggest we might want to think about getting her tubes but that's a story for a later time. Other than a few bumps and a low fever, she wasn't really sick at all. Meanwhile, we had to miss a whole week of daycare. I was hoping that the results would be back before Thanksgiving, but no such luck.

Greg graciously volunteered to stay home with Meredith while I spent Thanksgiving with my mom's family (my aunts, uncles, cousins) as I had cousins from out of town visiting and there was a big Turkey Day celebration planned.

I had a fabulous time, but I was sad to leave Meredith at home. I know a lot of people wanted to see her. But I wouldn't want to infect anyone with Chicken Pox if that is what she had.

I spent Friday morning shopping with a friend of mine. I'm not the type of shopper that has to get up at 4:00 a.m. to find deals. I don't want to fight people over things. I prefer to hit the stores nice and early (more like 8:00 a.m.). I did manage to find a few Black Friday deals though which I am happy with. I also got most of my Christmas shopping done now! YAY!!! Because I hate going into stores in the month of December...I just hate it. I don't do well bumping elbows with people, fighting for parking spaces, being caught up in traffic...I end up running to CVS a lot because I can get in and out quite easily.

We heard back about the Chicken Pox test results on Friday. It was negative. So, we missed out on a whole week of daycare and Thanksgiving for nothing. At that point I was just kind of hoping it was Chicken Pox so she could be done and over with it. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving.

Uncle Robin.

Sitting at the table and gabbing - what we do best.

Nate and Jen's little cutie - Sam.

The boys talking.

What my dad does best on holidays.

Go Vikes!

I thought a picture of my Vikings fans would be appropriate for this very fine November Sunday. I can't believe how well they are doing this year. Who would have thought we'd be in this position this year with Brett Favre being one of the main attractions? Is Greg going to get to go to Miami in January?!? We'll see!!!

I've been gone for a while so I have nothing huge to write about. I spent the last nine days out in San Jose, CA (actually Santa Clara). It was quite the long trip but I managed to meet up with a couple friends, go to Santana Row a couple times, and I spent one afternoon up in San Francisco and one afternoon up in Sausalito. And the weather was great! This is my second trip out there in the last six weeks so I feel like I live there almost. Last time I got to spend a day up in the Napa Valley region. It will be a while before I make it back there but I feel lucky that I got to see some good sights on a couple of business trips.

halloween

This year marked Meredith's 3rd Halloween. I really made an effort to get into it and it really rubbed off on her. She is at an age now where she 'gets' things. I had her halloween costume picked out and completed back in August - how's that for being in the spirit? I might be biased, but I think she was the cutest little bee I ever did see. And oh my, did she LOVE being a bee.

Last year we went to Mall of America because she was so little still and almost too young to go door to door. It wasn't too bad from what I remember so we decided to go again this year. BIG MISTAKE. Maybe it was because halloween fell on a Saturday this year, but that place was packed. Ridiculously packed. It was not fun. And because there are like 5000 kids there, the stores all hand out crappy candy like suckers and jawbreakers. I'm not going to let my child eat jawbreakers. Meredith got better loot trick-or-treating at my office the day before. At any rate, Meredith had a good time and that's all that matters. I think next year we're just going to do some good old fashioned door-to-door trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

We made it home by 7:30 or so and we lit up our jack-o-lanterns and turned on the light so we could hand out candy. Meredith loved that too. She kept saying "more people".

Here she is all smiles on the way to the mall.

Getting some tricks-or-treats!

Hanging out with Grandma Schwake (Juana as Meredith says)

Here we are going up to the second level to try to escape the first level crowds.

Lovin' those Old Dutch dill pickle chips. My child for sure.