The Week, Starring Snow and Pianos

Each year at Thanksgiving I give my preschoolers a blank piece of paper and ask them to tell me what they're thankful for, and then they draw a picture of it. Most of them make some reference or another to their families, and a lot of others are about toys and pets. Some of them, on par for four year-old minds, are bizarrely out of the blue. One said, "I am thankful for...little tiny unicorns".

The kids are out of school this week. Usually we get the 'early out' on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, but this year we got the whole darn week off. Eliza babysat this morning--one of her greatest joys in life--and then she and Wilson went to Granny's house to make Italian cookies (that are hard to pronounce and even harder to spell...). I've written about these cookies before. My husband finds them delightful, but he also voluntarily eats mincemeat pie, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and tofu. When I tell you that some of the cookie ingredients are figs and anise you'll probably agree with me when I guess that the kids weren't exactly fighting to see who got to lick the spoon, but they had such a nice afternoon with their Granny.

I held a piano recital this week and it was a great success. All the kids did well and it was so rewarding to see them poised and playing well even if they were practically sick from nerves. Eliza and Wilson had worked so hard on their pieces, and they played so well. I think everybody should have to play in a piano recital at least once in their lifetime. It is a real character builder.

We got a little snow this week. In Boise the snowflakes are few and far between. Growing up in Utah set the bar high for awesome winter weather, and I have been disappointed ever since...oh, except for the winter Zane and I spent in Jackson Hole which included snow falls that covered our car doors and a moose who took refuge from the weather under our front stairway... In Boise, the weathermen get everybody all pumped up about EPIC SNOWSTORMS and WINTER STORM WARNINGS and then...meh. A skiff. (I'm going to eat crow in the morning when I wake up to a foot of snow...) Anyway, here are pics of the kids who know that if they want to enjoy the snow here, they had better throw their snow clothes on over their PJs and head out the door. I especially like the one of Eliza's snowman. That's as big as they come around here!