The tree is up

Our tree is up. We found out the angel topper we have had for probably 21-22 years finally gave out on us. We made an emergency run to Target and the only thing they had that we sort of liked was a stained-glass designed star. I'd prefer an angel, but we'll make do with the star for now.

Sleepover & Christkindlmarket

'Twas the morning after a sleepover and all through the basement, not a creature was stirring ... and they didn't move until about 10 a.m. When Andy and I went to bed we told the boys not to leave the house - they were planning a late-night run to Walgreens for snacks. However, we didn't tell them not to let anyone in the house. So, we went to bed with three boys in our basement and woke up with four there.

Temperatures were in the 50s today so we thought we'd take advantage of the nice weather and head downtown to the Christkindlmarket. Apparently everyone in Chicagoland had the same idea. It was packed. We didn't even wait in the huge line to get the kids their hot chocolate. It was crazy. It was a nice night, though, to walk to Pizzeria Due where we had a pretty long wait for a table.

The sleepover (or lack of sleep) must have caught up with B who napped while we were waiting for our table. E was busy texting P who was at his family's belated Thanksgiving dinner.

We sat in the upstairs balcony area and the pizza was ready right when we sat down. It's a pretty neat view of the street from there.

We walked back to the car through the Christkindlmarket and although it was open, it was still packed. Guess Andy is going to have to walk over there during work one day and buy the hot chocolate in the mug for L, who now thinks she needs a collection of the mugs since she got one last year with Aunt Cindy. If you can find a day off, Aunt Cindy, L would still love to have a day off of school to take you shopping in the big city.

Faraway friends

B was thrilled to have his friend, L, in from Ohio for the weekend. L came over this morning and is going to sleep over. I'm expecting IB to come over before the sleepover begins. L's mom treated them (and my L) to lunch at Portillo's. His last visit may have been in April.

About an hour after L arrived, E's friend, F, who's visiting from California came over. The girls were here for about five minutes then headed out to do some Black Friday shopping at the local mall. These two haven't seen each other since a carefully arranged meeting in Japan last summer.

Thanksgiving

We had a small Thanksgiving this year with Aunt Allison and family. It was nice that we were all able to sit at the dining room table - no kids table! Here are a few pictures I took before the feast.

Muffles manned the back-porch bar while August hid downstairs.

The table ready for the food.

Andy carving the turkey. Because everyone prefers white meat, we made two turkey breasts instead of a single turkey.

B has been downing cough medicine all day. He's a bit under the weather and took a little nap next to Aunt Allison before we had dinner.

Cornucopia cake pops

When I opened the refrigerator this morning, I saw the cake pops L began making for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure where she put everything that was on the top shelf, but I am confident it's in the fridge somewhere. She said she couldn't do them all last night or she would have been up all night. She finished the rest today.

I think she did a pretty good job for a 12-year-old who followed a video on YouTube. And, they actually taste good.

She has enough to cover some with plastic wrap and give to her neighborhood friends and teacher on Monday if we freeze them this weekend. I have to say I'm impressed.

Wish I was as impressed with my first effort at pecan pie. I followed the recipe. It's a little dark. I'm not sure whether it's really done or burnt a bit. We'll find out tomorrow. B spent part of the day playing video games here with IR and IB. E had P come over and bake chocolate chip cookies. Then they took a walk to Radio Shack and Panera for lunch, then back here for a while. Here's a (very dark) pic she took of them to show the cousins tomorrow.

Today's tragedy

L was sad after she broke her last silly straw in half tonight. I told her if that's the worst thing that happened to her today, she's had a pretty good day.

Monster pies

Since L went to the zoo yesterday with her neighborhood friends, Andy filled in for at the church pie-baking fund-raiser. He brought home two apple pies for us that we ordered. One is for us and one is for him to take to work. They're kind of monstrous, don't you think? That's OK, though. We know from past experience it will taste delicious. E said the kids were joking when they were making them Saturday that they look like the pies with bombs in them that they show on "SpongeBob SquarePants."

Brookfield Zoo

L spent the rainy, but warm, day at Brookfield Zoo with her neighborhood friends N and B. N's Girl Scout troop was decorating a tree there for the zoo's holiday lights event so N's mom invited L and B along. L took a few good pictures. She had a lot more, but they were blurry. It's kind of hard for her to stand still enough to not blur the photos.

Thankoffering Dinner

E and B spent the entire afternoon at the church making pies for the youth group fundraiser. We brought B home about 5 p.m. because he was expecting his friends IR and IB to come over to play video games. E was going to stay at the church and wait around for the Thankoffering Dinner to begin at 6 p.m. When we got there at about 6, she surprised us with her friend, N. Not sure how she met up with N, but since B stayed home from the dinner to be with his friends (which he also did last year - hmmm), N was able to take his spot since we RSVP'd for five. N is dating C, whose cousin, G, is friends with E's "friend" P. Confused yet? And they were all at G's house which conveniently happens to be next door to our church. Apparently, E and N ran over there so N could borrow C's jacket and P told E she smelled like apples. Guess five hours of pie-baking will do that to a girl!

The girls enjoyed the potluck. E obviously over-filled her plate and couldn't finish. I made stuffing this year because last year no one brought stuffing or mashed potatoes and I was dismayed. This year, we had my stuffing, but still no mashed potatoes. There were plenty of potato dishes and some mashed sweet potatoes, but it's really not the same. L went with us but was sitting with her middle school friends. Best part of the night was that our table got to be the first to get food. I don't think that's ever happened to us. A friend sent me this picture as proof:

After E and N finished eating they took the car to go "adventuring." I think that means "we want to drive around with no particular place to go." I remember those days. She got home by 10 like we told her, but then she went for a walk around the neighborhood with P.

Cats are taking over

L likes to grab a cat to take to bed with her each night - sort of a living stuffed animals thing. Anyway, they usually sneak back out, but the other night she used a baby blanket and made August a little bed by her head. She said he didn't wake up until 2 a.m. when she felt him walk over her to escape. Lately, he's been going to his "bed" in the middle of the day. I found him in L's room the other afternoon and then I went in B's room and look who I found all cozy on his bed:

These cats are taking over.

Chocolate and calculus

I heard on the TV yesterday that we've been over 180 hours without the temperatures going above freezing. That's more than seven days and we're well overdue for a warmup to at least seasonal temperatures. E decided she needed some hot chocolate to motivate her to do her calculus. I had to take a picture because I think it's the first time I've seen her doing homework this entire school year - that may be a bit of an exaggeration. And so she posts her status on Facebook as "Hot chocolate and calculus, is there any better combination?" I love my cousin K's response, "I can do without the calculus." Me too.

Late day

You know it's a late arrival Wednesday for the high school when B is in the kitchen making himself pancakes for breakfast.

No dryer

Our dryer has decided to stop working so we're drying clothes all over the dining room, even on L's music stand.

UIC basketball

L was invited by her neighborhood friend, N, to go to a University of Illinois-Chicago basketball game tonight. N's dad works with the college band. Walking around the stadium before the game, L found a foam finger and a couple of give-away flying things in the stands. She caught two T-shirts they gave away during the game. She had a great time.

'Once on This Island'

Today was the third performance of L's school musical, "Once on This Island." All of us (with B, E and P) went to the matinee performance today. Andy tried to get a few pictures of the performance, but you can't use a flash so it's kind of tricky. She came out before the show started and I was able to get a picture of her in her island costume.

In this scene, she's holding an umbrella with silver streamers to portray the rain. She's to the left of the boy in white.

In this picture, she spotted us in the audience:

Afterward, she had us drop her off at the local ice cream parlor to celebrate with the rest of the cast.

Honor roll

That's my boy!

Band concert

L had her first band concert of the year at the high school last night. We had to pick her up from play rehearsal at 7 p.m. and get her in the high school by 7:25 p.m. She changed her clothes in the church and E even helped her fix her tie.

She was on stage looking for us, I presume, before they started performing.

Ouch

This is what the school nurse does to you when you accidentally pick up a hot piece of porcelain in chemistry class. And boy does news travel fast. E messaged me about what was wrong with B and when I had no idea, she said her friend saw him in the nurse's office. Of course, being the diligent big sister, she questioned him in the hallway and let me know he had burned himself.

Neighborhood fire

This is not what you want to see when you step out your back door.

E and B were off today for Veterans Day and I had just picked up E from her lunch date with P when we heard a couple emergency vehicles fly by the house. That's not so unusual, but they kept coming. I had the kids look out the window and they said they saw a couple fire engines, two ambulances and both marked and unmarked police cars speeding down the road. We decided to jump in the car and see what was going on and noticed the smoke the minute we stepped outside. Turns out, the local bakery's service garage was on fire when a propane tank exploded. Fortunately, I got back to the house and had the good sense to park on the apron instead of the street because the police soon shut down most of the side streets and a lot of cars were detoured to our street. E and B went walking over by the fire, talking to friends who were out and finding out more about what was going on. E got some decent pictures of the fire:

Some of the cable company's lines melted in the fire so our service went out. For us, that meant no phone, TV or cable. The kids were not happy. P lives close enough his power was shut off as a precaution until 10 p.m. At least we kept our electricity on. Of course all the Chicago news stations were there and since we had no cable service, we had to unplug the cable from the TV and were only getting Channels 5, 9 and 11 over the air. At least we got to see some of the news coverage. Here's the police officer in front of our house, blocking westbound traffic on our side street.

Whose chair?

August has always been the cuddlier of the two cats and lately he's taken to jumping up in the red chair when we're sitting in it. He likes to be petted and he'll lick our hands, but I'm pretty sure he just wants us out of his chair.

B's meatballs

B has been watching Saturday morning cooking shows with me and one of the shows we regularly critique is "The Pioneer Woman." I checked one of her cookbooks out of the library and was getting ready to return it when B found a recipe for rigatoni and meatballs he wanted to try. I'll step aside anytime my kids want to cook for me. This is a long process. It started by baking French bread to make your own breadcrumbs. Who seriously does that? We started that at 4 p.m., hoping to get dinner on the table by 6 p.m. That was optimistic.

This was the worse part of cooking for B. He had to wash his hands (of course) and mix the meats, crumbs, eggs, etc. to make the meatballs. His sensory issues kicked in and he had to turn the chore over to me. Too squishy for him. Look at his face. It looks like he's being tortured! He did scoop out the meatballs while I rolled them and put them on a cookie sheet. Then we had to freeze the meatballs for 15 minutes - then cook the meatballs in small batches - then make the sauce - cook that for 30 minutes - then add the meatballs and cook the rigatoni. We finally sat down to dinner at 6:50 p.m.

Looks good, right? We decided the meatballs were good (L deemed them "delicious)") but it certainly isn't worth three hours to make dinner. We have a lot of meatballs left over so we'll freeze those for a future quick meal, but after that I think we'll be back to the frozen meatballs and Ragu sauce.