Update 11/23 - 11/29
I'm rewinding a bit to Thanksgiving week. I flew out to New York on Wednesday night, so
I had time on Wednesday to meet up with Lucas and Dawne for lunch. Lucas filled me in on his car debacles. Plural because, first he though when he
bought the car right before we drove up to Seattle last spring, that they
dealer had registered his car. Only they
hadn't, and he proceeded to get all sorts of tickets that they had to figure
out. And then, he locked his keys in the
car. I'm not going to tell the story
correctly, but here's my understanding.
He was parked against a wall, and he drives a prius. When AAA / locksmith came, they couldn't get
the car started because kind of electrical connection to the car to start. In the process of trying to figure that out,
they left the car on and wore out the battery.
But they couldn't tow the car because it was up against a wall, and they
couldn't jump start the car because they didn't have a key. Several guys came out to try to fix the
problem and all left Lucas without helping.
Finally the owner of the locksmith came and said that he wasn't leaving
until Lucas had his car back. They guy
drove him to a dealer who made an extra key from the key that was sold to Lucas
when he bought the car, then they drove back to find that it was the wrong type
of key and then had to go back to the dealer to have a new one made before he
could get back in, jump start the car and drive again. So... that was my lunch with Luke.
Then I went back to the house with Dawne and Lucas to
make cookies with Dawne, Zach, Diana & Harper only Zach and I didn't help
bake at all and just watched Harper & Dawne do all the work. But it was nice seeing everyone. :) Dawne had rented a Yukon Denali so that they
could all go to Leavenworth over the weekend.
Jumping on the opportunity, we filled it to the brim with the rest of my
stuff and unloaded it into my spare bedroom where it has been ever since.
If I remember to add it, I saw this video of drunk girls
and puppies that I think is super cute.
Percy and I headed to the airport, but before we did, I
stopped at Chick-Fil-A for dinner. I was
very surprised to find myself in a pay-it-forward situation where someone ahead
of me had paid for my dinner. What an
awesome way to put you in a grateful and giving mood for the holiday
season.
Thursday was Thanksgiving which means I went to Sean
& Stacey's and Stacey, once again rocked it in the kitchen. Everything was absolutely perfect and I was
overwhelmed with love, happiness and a feeling of gratitude for having such an
awesome family. In other news, Stacey
has had this fish tank for 15+ years and recently one of her sharks died. She threw her "beloved" pet in a
ziplock and put it in the trash because it wasn't flushable (these sharks are
like a foot long.)
Jackie: Did you hear about Dumpling?
Me: Morgan's guinea pig?
Morgan: Yeah, I came home and told mom that I wanted to
bury him.
Stacey: I got rid of him. I took a spatula and threw him
in the trash.
Jackie: I was in my Socratic discussion class and this
girl was finished a 15 minute speech on Isis.
She paused to take a drink of water, when this other kid raised their
hand and said, "So Isis isn't just one person?" and the girl ended up
spitting her water all over the place.
Mo: Put some cherry pie on there, Kyle, I already threw
out my plate.
Kyle was not happy about this, which is why I thought it
was funny, but I also vaguely remember Sean considering taking something out of
the trash to eat it, a la George Costanza, but I can't confirm the detail or if
it was this weekend or Christmas weekend or if it happened on the Gilmore
Girls, so maybe I'll skip that story. :)
The girls were discussing having a secret santa at
Stacey's family Christmas. The adults
traditionally do a secret Santa, but Jackie thought it would be fun for there
to be a 5 dollar Secret Santa. As the
Morgan & Jackie were discussing the details...
Morgan: How are we going to do this?
Jackie: Mom takes us to 5 below, gives us each 5 dollars
and goes away.
Stacey: Excuse me?
Carla decided to so something a little different with the
pie this year...
The day after Thanksgiving, Carla, the girls and I had
our traditional brunch and baking morning.
I introduced them to "Spyfall" the day before, so we decided
to play a little. Basically, everyone
gets a character, one of which is the spy.
Then the spy has to figure out where everyone is while the rest of the
group has to figure out who the spy is, and the game is timed.
Morgan: What does regulated mean?
Jackie: Oh my god, we don't have time for that right now,
Morgan.
Jackie: Bailey requested to be transferred out of my gym
class.
Me: You didn't want to be in the same class as Jackie?
Bailey: I'd rather be with no one so my ego wouldn't be
crushed.
Jackie has requested that everyone call her
Princess. The family has agreed, but it
comes out more of a sarcastic, "Okay, Princess... "
We tried out three different recipes. The first one you had to take pie crust and
wrap it around Hershey Kisses. Bailey
and I wrapped them by rolling the dough into a perfect ball. Carla & Jackie decided to make origami
shapes out of the dough. We're all
puzzled as to why we continued to task them with the wrapping portion when
there were many other jobs we could have moved them on to. The last batch of cookies required some
serious mixing. Carla suggested we use
the electric mixer, but Bailey insisted on doing it by hand saying,
"Mixing my only exercise!"
Maureen: My kids think you have the most awesome
job. Meanwhile, they have a very low
opinion of being a teacher because in the Game of Life, teachers are the worst
thing you could get.
Eva & Briana came over with Austin & Freddy on
Saturday morning. My dad had surgery the
week before and so he had a bandage from his ear to his neck. Eva was telling Freddy that Percy bites, but
you know, just a little bit, no big deal, while Freddy was giving her a look
like, "What the hell, Mom? Why did you bring me here?"
Briana: I see you got bit by the dog, too.
Frita: He went for the jugular.
After everyone left:
Frita: You were interrogating Freddy like it was the
inquisition.
Me: That's how you talk to kids. I was taking an interest in his life!
I think the following conversation happened with Frita,
although it kind of sounds more like Eva.
Frita: Father Rajan left the parish. We had a party.
Me: Did you go?
Frita: Yes. Not for him, for the treats.
Sean, Jackie & Morgan came over and we decorated the
house with Christmas decorations. It’s a
major project, I'm not going to lie.
Sean also took down something from the attic (that my dad would later
wrap up for him for Christmas) and I took down my Simpson Marionettes. Clearly,
we couldn't remember where everything went, but I kept telling Sean not to
stress about it because Mom would just move it all anyway after we left. Jackie
sat on the arm of the Chippendale chair in the living room and there was this
huge cracking noise. I tried to cover it
up but still tell my mom that the chair was broken, only to find out that Kevin
broke it ages ago and Momela had glued it back together. Phew.
On Saturday evening, Lisa came over. She was telling us all about Buddy (the Elf
on the Shelf) and his friend Sparkle.
Lisa: We told the kids she's from the South Pole. She's darker because she was 20% off.
Luckily, Maureen's kids never did Elf on the Shelf
because
Maureen: Sometimes in class, when the kids are acting up
I say, "God is watching." And then, "It was okay in the catholic
school - is it not okay here? Okay, but he is."
My sister always says, "Pool pond" instead of
saying, "whatever." It's a
phrase that has always been in my life, but like some many other things, I had
no idea what it was from. I found out it
was from caddy shack this weekend, and now I kind of want to watch that movie
again.
Bailey: I tried baking again..
Me: Oooh! It looks like Vermont!
