Weekend Wrap-Up

What a fantastic weekend we had! Thanksgiving was amazing - great food and good times with the family. After dinner, we threw everyone out and Jackie started planning her Black Friday excursion. She was in line to shop by 10 o'clock pm. She didn't return home until 7 am Friday morning. Got some super deals and DT's shopping is covered!
We got a tree and lazed around on Friday, ignoring much of the cleanup that went un-cleaned-up from our turkey (and ham!) feast. Friday night DT spent the night at Camp Gramps, and as rumor has it, he actually slept in there! More lazing and more Christmas prep took over the remainder of our lovely long weekend.

By the way, THIS is what that Howard photo SHOULD have looked like:

Picture of the Week

What a happy Thanksgiving we had! Hope all of our readers did well with turkey and fixin's. We had about 20 visitors and surprise, surprise - the day went swimmingly! We could not have asked for better. We so enjoyed not having to rush from place to place, and we're thinking this open door T-day is the way to go!

We only took a few photos, and I selected this one for PotW. It is unbelievable how much I hate it. Can we say Awkward Family Photos anyone? I mean, even Dane Thomas looks angry! Makes you wonder what I said before I took the picture, huh?!


Gramps, Daniel, Dane Thomas and Great Grandma

Busy, Busy

Today Dane Thomas helped his mommy prepare for the Thanksgiving feast we'll be hosting tomorrow. We decided to stop trying to make the rounds to everybody and their mama on each holiday. So this Thanksgiving, we're letting the family come to us. We're holding an open door Thanksgiving, and everyone is welcome to visit and eat with us between the hours of 11 and 5. We're kicking everyone out by 5, because Jackie has to catch a COUPLE of hours of sleep so she can face the Black Friday crowds. No hard feelings if you can't make it, but don't grudge on us for staying home! We are expecting about 20 people tomorrow, so the house has been abuzz with cooking and prep-work. Everything smells delicious and we're beat.
To those coming: 1)Do not (not not not) show up before 11. We will not let you in. Go ahead, test us. 2)No fighting over Dane! =)

We're wishing you and yours a very Happy Thanksgiving.

"Put It Back"

Dane's latest craze is putting things away. Once we play with books or blocks, we tell Dane it's time to clean up and put things back. He used to have no interest, but lately our praise is his top priority. So he listens. This also works when he grabs things from the cabinets, shoe racks, closets. We are liking his obedience in this respect, but wonder if he could be taking the act of "put it back" too far.
Today, we get home from a long day in the car and Dane goes off to his rec room. After a short while, Dane brings me the dog bowl from the dining room. I tell him "No sir, put it back". Away he goes and I return to the task at hand. The next thing I hear is Dane picking up dog food. Or was he putting it down? My curiosity won and I decided to go peek in rather than call for him. I watch for a while in sheer entertainment as Dane Thomas picks up dog food from Dingo's bowl, and walks it across the room and puts it into Blue's bowl. Repeat, repeat, repeat until Blue has all the food. Only then does he notice his curious spectator. He flashes a confident smile at his mommy...
And begins his mission to return the food to Dingo's bowl.

Weekend Wrap-Up

This weekend we had our floors replaced on the bottom level. The work was done for us, and we are still left EXHAUSTED. Our greatest accomplishment of the weekend was that we survived. No productivity, no fun.

I've never been so happy to see Monday.
And I've never been so happy to see it go.

Indoor Play Time

"How about this freakin' weather?"
It's all good, we've been having a ball inside. Jackie broke bank and bought a fancy DSLR camera and has enjoyed the opportunity to have some slow photo sessions. Here are some shots of Dane playing in the toy room with mommy.

Monkey Man

For Halloween this year Dane dressed up as a monkey. Jackie sewed the costume herself, which may be why we felt the need to take and share so very many pictures. We took Dane trick-or-treating around the cul-de-sac to show him off and meet the neighbors. Dane was more occupied with his raisins (which you will find in many pictures) than with the candy. He didn't fully grasp the concept of TOTing, and he would try to take the candy he got from one house and GIVE IT to the people at the next house. He did love ringing the doorbells though. He did a great job and we all had a lot of fun. Here's a collection of our favorite pictures of our little monkey man!

Favorite Things: Apples

When we brought home so many apples from the orchard, several people asked us if Dane is actually eating the apples. I had never given him an apple whole until we went picking, but since then, they have become a favorite of Dane's. I guess I already knew this, but looking through recent pictures of Dane Thomas, his love for apples is pretty evident.

Dane hides his apples in his snack cup when he's saving them for later.