Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we stayed at home this year. We could not agree on the mode of traveling, so we decided to stay put. It is nice, not to have to join the thousands of travelers. I got my shopping done early, so no pushing an shoving for me last minute. We invited the Brunett family. Ethan Brunett is in the same class as Marlene and since they did not had any plans either, we celebrated together. Rosario, Ethan's mother, said, they never had a real traditional Thanksgiving, because they always had celebrated in Florida with other foreigners, and everyone brought something to a potluck. Not so here. We had a huge turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad, gravy and cranberry sauce. Afterwards, off course, we had pumpkin pie for desert. We loved the company and the kids had a lot of fun, running around and playing.

On Friday we went to the beach. Nothing says beach like the stench of dying and dead salmon trying to get up the river. It was nauseating. Last week there had been no rain, so it is very hard for the fish to reach the river (at this point) at Carkeek Park, because the water has been so low. We counted 17 dead and two dying fish. Last year, we spent the day after Thanksgiving in Santa Cruz at the beach. Somehow 70 F has more appeal than 35 F and fish stench.

Today the girls and I went with Jen and Zoey to the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaqua. For years i have been wanting to go. Today was the day. The Cougar Mountain Zoo has the largest herd of Northern reindeer south of the "North Pole". And wouldn't you believe it, there were Rudolph, Dasher, Prancer, Dancer, Vixen, Cupid, Comet, Donner, and Blitzen. These were some beautiful animals. Everyone was getting the park ready for Santa and the Reindeer Festival, which starts next week (just my luck). I guess it was nice to be able to see everything without huge amounts of people. Off course, there were cougars and Bengal tigers, as well. I loved the Alpacas and there were many different parrots, other birds and lemurs. The zoo was small, but nice. I want to come back in summer when it is not freezing.

Our Fish Max

Last Tuesday, the 20th of November, Marlene's beta pasted away. Max had been with our family since Marlene's 4th birthday. We assume he was about 3 years old. He was burried in our back yard under the pear tree. We miss him very much.

Princesses on Ice

Last Saturday we went to see the Disney Princesses on Ice. Marlene and Jason had participated in a newspaper contest and actually won four tickets to the show. The girls had a lot of fun. We had good seats in Key Arena. And like everyhting Disney, it was not cheap, but done really well. The costumes were great, the dancing good ( I reallly don't know anything about ice skating), and the overall show was quite entertaining. Here is a little video, that I found on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKhtJxSKxIw

Halloween Season

Jason insists that Halloween is just a day, but I disagree, it is a season. We started decorating the house the beginning of October. Most of you know, that I have more Halloween stuff than Christmas decorations. We do the decorating in stages, so that he does not get too aggravated. Amelia practiced riding on a broom stick just in case. Like last year, we got a picture taken of the girls in their costumes. They both decided to be fairies this year. I chose to stay out of the picture, because, somehow I think, I am out of the age range for fairies. What is a grown up fairy anyway? a witch? I think the line is a very grey zone.

Like several years in the past, last Friday we went to the Pumpkin Prowl at the zoo. It is just so beautiful to see the hundreds of carved pumpkins all lit up. We got some great ideas for our own carvings. On Saturday I went to Nicola's Halloween Party which is an other fix point of this season.

On Halloween itself, we had our own Halloween Open House for friends. I can not believe it was the third time we did this. During the preparations I always ask myself, why I get so deep into it, but everything worked out fine, thanks of the help of my friend Julie. There was a nice spread of food and drinks for children and adults. Cheers to Halloween!

P.S. In the evening Marlene went Trick-or-Treating for the first time (in other years she always was too scared). This year was a great success because she went with the neighbor girls Sarah and Kaitlin, and we ended up with more candy than we started out with. (I made Marlene take most of it to the collection station for the food bank).