A play-by-play of sorts.

Hope you and yours all had a wonderful holiday. Jason looks forward to Thanksgiving every year because he always gets the Friday after off so it's a four day holiday. This year he also took Monday off for our parish patronal feast of St. Andrew.

Thanksgiving day was really nice and warm. We ate outside and we hosted Jason's dad and his brother. The kids played outside all day. Grandpa Bill does the turkey in the BBQ and I take care of all the sides. I panicked the last half-hour before we served the meal because I foolishly squandered too much time, thinking I had a whole hour. I had two pots of potatoes boiling, green beans to blanche and then saute which I should have done the day before, I was feeling completely overwhelmed. After barking at the kids to get out of the kitchen and cursing myself for miscalculating the time, my dear Jason assured me there was no rush, the turkey could wait, and my dear father-in-law poured me a delightful glass of wine, in which I obligingly took some sips (gulps?), and pressed on. Of course everything was fine and came out pretty good. Thank God.
On Friday Jason had projects so I took all our leftovers to my parents. The weather was changing that day, and it rained all night. Saturday morning was so beautiful we talked ourselves out of going shopping (I think most of our shopping will be done online this year) and into going to a nearby park that has a trail, perfect for Hannah to practice her big bike on. I'm so glad we did.

Hannah takes pictures now:

Sometimes I fantasize about living in a house right next to this trail. I know it's wrong. I just can't help it.

Sunday was church and our normal after-church-protocol of sunning ourselves in the backyard, watching the kids play, book reading, some beer, some food, some laughs.

And then on Monday we had a Liturgy for St. Andrew in the morning, enjoyed some fish tacos at the best hole-in-the-wall place ever by our house. When you walk in a Mexican food restaurant and your family looks really really white like ours, and the restaurant staff looks at you, like "What are you doing here?" you know it's gonna be good. We won them over too. We headed back out to church for a special Vespers service on our freshly poured slab for our new temple with not one but TWO bishops - our Bishop Joseph and the OCA's Bishop Benjamin to be exact. (hee hee - hard hats, too cute.)

Father Josiah as Vespers began. The sun set by the end of service. Nice. I confess to going to the van with Phillip in the middle of it. He was wiggly and whiny and I was cold. There was a banquet after but we didn't go mostly because our little Phillip. He squawks too loud and I didn't want to feel resentful holding him outside while Jason stayed inside or vise a versa.

Back to routine today. House cleaning, laundering, baking, preparing for the Nativity. Glory to God for all things!