Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was a festive Thanksgiving for the Aalbertses of Normal. Hopefully the same can be said for you!

Our Thanksgiving activities began last Tuesday with a special "Feast" at Owen's pre-school. The kids made pilgrim and Indian hats, sang songs, and enjoyed the "feast" of cornbread, turkey, and Craisins.

Then it was off to Nana and Grandpa Aalberts' house for a fun three days. Grandpa is doing great two weeks off of heart surgery. Owen saddled up next to Grandpa's recovery recliner for storytimes (when Grandpa wasn't enjoying a beaters-full of brownie frosting ...)

... and worked the crowd, until everyone else in the family had read him a few stories as well.

Maya, meanwhile, found her major captivation in the eyes of her Great Aunt Lorie's puppy Archie, who has become a kid favorite at all of our Chicagoland holiday gatherings.

A treat for me was spending my first Thanksgiving with my brother Daniel in 23 years. Daniel came home his freshman year at MIT, but opted for Columbus Day every year since, as it split the semester up better for him.

For me, it was fun to confirm my memories that he actually does like turkey and pumpkin pie.

We came home on Friday and enjoyed a busy weekend. We checked out the new exhibit at the Children's Discovery Museum, and cleaned out some boxes of stuff from the basement.

The only downer is that little Maya has been under the weather since we got back. While she has no symptoms other than a high fever, she's been really uncomfortable and needy for lots of extra cuddles and TLC. We're thinking her teeth are finally ready to come in.

While it was nearly 50 degrees out on Saturday, Sunday brought steady snows. Owen and I went out and shoveled our drive (as well as a couple of the neighbors'), had a snowball fight with the 3rd grader from next door, and last night built this snowman ...


Oh the industry you'll undertake when there's no Hawkeye football game to watch all weekend.

We missed the Ives family and send our love to Grammie and hope she feels better soon. But all in all it was a good Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for, as we confirmed on our last night at Grandma and Grandpa's. My dad began, expressing his thanks for the love and support he felt from us as he went through his surgery. Owen jumped in next with his "thankful for ..." list, which covered everything from trucks and trains, buses and tigers, but ended with a confident "I'm thankful for my family."