I love Thanksgiving. It feels like a sampler of what life will be just a few short weeks afterwards. Mark calls it a "teaser", and he doesn't have as good of feelings about the three weeks that bridge Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, when you don't have children at home most of the time, three weeks feels like a small price to pay to have everyone home two separate times within a month of each other. I love how all the Kennedys ducklings return home to the roost. Or is it a lake? What a blessing to have everyone together again.
A blessing for our Thanksgiving this year was having Allison with us. She's become such an integral part of our family now that I actually can't imagine a holiday without her (although we'll find out what it's like this coming Christmas). She brings a smile and happiness along with some pretty amazing food, so she's a joy to have around.
This Thanksgiving, another family member was joining us too. Baby Cat. Emerson. Andy. A week later, and we still aren't sure what we're going to call him, but no matter. He's ours.
I originally had plans to get a new cat when we moved. However, seeing that our house has now been on the market for over a year, and we haven't had a single bite, I didn't really want to wait anymore. The holes that Range's and Scoutie's deaths left in our lives have needed filling. I decided that for once I wasn't going to have a rescue cat. Not that anything has been wrong with them, but I wanted to actually buy a breed of cat. I grew up with full-bred Siamese and Abyssians, and it seemed fun. However, after visiting a cattery here in Pennsylvania, I recognized that it was going to be hard to find a pure bred cat that was well socialized. However, I wasn't going to give up. And it was then that Andy found us.
I have made many friends at Interlochen, and one of the nurses is a foster mom for animals for the local shelter in Traverse City. She had actually live-trapped a kitten a few weeks previous, and it was now time to find him a new home. When she posted a picture on the internet, I knew he was meant to be ours.
Ethan and Rebecca volunteered to drive up to Traverse City on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to pick him up, and Allison and Mark volunteered to drive him to PA the following day (Ethan and Rebecca spent Thanksgiving with her family). I could hardly wait to meet him!
So when they showed up, we couldn't do much more but get him comfy in Hannah's bedroom and attend to Thanksgiving festivities. Hannie, of course, didn't mind at ALL!
I had planned some pampering activities for Hannie for the day before Thanksgiving--a massage, and a hair cut--and Allison, Glo and I got pedicures. Mark got a much-needed haircut also. No sooner had we stepped in the door then Mark and Allison got started on dinner. Holy smokes! Pasta with sausage and other goodies, and homemade pizza. It was so unlike anything that I make which is what might have made it even better! We all ate until we couldn't eat another bite. Those two do amazing things together!
Then, all of us (minus John who was stuck at the hospital) headed out to see "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". And sitting there in that theatre, I had one of those out-of-body moments. I anticipate family time for weeks (and sometimes even months), but once it happens, I really want to appreciate every second that we are together. Because, as all of my kids say, it goes by way too fast. The movie was really good, but being there together made it the best.
The next morning, we were planning on getting up early and getting everything in the oven, but unfortunately, John was still stuck at the hospital. I knew that it was going to take some finesse to delay the Thanksgiving feast until he could get several women delivered. The first step was encouraging everyone to sleep in :-)
By the time we were all up, Mark set to the task of cleaning out both the turkey, and the goose. Yes, John discovered that Wegman's sells geese as well as turkeys, so we all thought it would be an adventure to try one. Mark wasn't too excited about pulling out the giblet bags and such, but knowing that it's a "man dog" move to do it all, he jumped right in. Hannah stuffed the birds, and they were ready to go.
One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is having everyone take part in creating the meal. Growing up, it was always the mom of the house who did everything, but my kids have always been major players in getting everything ready. And once again, I admit that the food was really good, but having everyone in the kitchen together was the best.
The second part of delaying the feast was creating gratitude headbands for our upcoming Turkey Trot. I hear about and see people making gratitude turkeys--paper turkeys with feathers that have things written on them that people are grateful for. I figured we could bedeck ourselves with those feathers for our run. Glo helped get everything ready for the feather creation, but leave it to my family to get more creative than just headbands. We had turkey tail feathers, amulet necklaces, warrior armbands. I'm not sure what everyone wrote on their feathers (nobody was really sharing), but I think it's good to remind ourselves of our blessed lives.
Crazy enough, the meal was ready to go just fifteen minutes before John showed up. I didn't let him get in the shower (despite not having showered for two days), but ushered him to the table. Man, goose is good to eat. As is stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, Frog Eye salad, cranberry jelly, green-bean casserole (at least in the yes of everyone but me), and baby crap. I even made homemade apple sauce because according to the internet, it goes quite well with goose :-)
We left everything on the counter afterwards though, because we still needed to run our Turkey Trot.
Last year, we ran a 5K Turkey Trot down in Boalsburg, but I didn't like the race at all. The course was brutal, and the shirts weren't that great. So, what do we Kennedys do when we don't like something but still want it to happen? We make our own! Yep, I got together the swag bag and and John planned the trail for the first annual Kennedy Turkey Trot.
Too bad we had to run it in the dark, cross-country style.
That's right. By the time we changed out of our nice Thanksgiving clothes and back into grungy running clothes, it was dark outside. So what else to do but turn on our iphone flashlights? I refused to run, because the memory of breaking my ankle on uneven surfaces still haunts me. However, John and Mark headed out for a 10K, and Allison, Glo and Hannah started their 5K. "Over the river and through the woods" has never been more applicable to something our family has done together. The trail was wet and slippery because of the rain.
I won't lie. I was scared senseless. I was scared the same way one is scared to go out in the garage, or in the dark after watching a scary movie. We had only watched "Lights Out" days before, and I had no doubt that Diana was hiding around every turn in the trail. It didn't help being alone. And in the dark. So I did what any sensible person would do: I called Ethan.
Ethan reminded me that if I was indeed attacked, I needed to describe the attacker to him on the phone. Right. That was going to work just as well as me remembering which way to turn the steering wheel when my car is sliding out of control on ice. I'm supposed to turn the wheel WITH the direction of the back wheels, and yet after thirty years of driving, I still go with my gut and turn the wheel the opposite way. No doubt, when some strange man stepped from the forest, I was going to keep my cool and describe his height, weight and hair color.
Crazy thing was that I was worried I was actually going to have to do all of this when I saw lights down the path. Turns out, Hannie had rolled her ankle and was bent over crying. I began to walk her back to the car (secretly grateful to have someone with me on that dark and scary path), but after a few minutes, she insisted that she would be fine walking back alone, and that I should finish my "run".
Begrudgingly, I headed back up the trail....and I called Ethan back.
The walk itself was pretty dang short, but any difficult thing always is when I have Ethan on the phone. Until, I was headed back, and I saw a bobbing light ahead on the trail. What the heck?!
I honestly stopped dead in my tracks and began speaking REALLY LOUDLY to Ethan so that my would-be attacker would know that I would immediately sum up his appearance and relay that information to my son who was sacked out on a couch over 200 miles away.
And once again, I was the fool. It was HANNAH (for heaven's sake). When I asked her what she was doing, she told me that she's never not finished a race, and this wasn't going to be the first time. That might have been well and good for that moment, but she paid for it over the weekend.
We all ended up finishing, thank goodness, and earned our orange Nike hoodie pullovers. We decided to throw a quick bonfire in our fire pit, and burn our turkey hardware. Because it was raining outside, it was a ridiculous fire, kept alive only with several matches, old cardboard boxes, some newspaper, and some hope. We quickly went round and round, listing off the things we are thankful for as the fire died. It was a sweet moment, hearing the beautiful things my kids and husband are thankful for. We owe so much of it to each other and to our Heavenly Father.
After all this, we were so very tired. We watched a movie and headed to bed. We had big plans for Friday!
A blessing for our Thanksgiving this year was having Allison with us. She's become such an integral part of our family now that I actually can't imagine a holiday without her (although we'll find out what it's like this coming Christmas). She brings a smile and happiness along with some pretty amazing food, so she's a joy to have around.
This Thanksgiving, another family member was joining us too. Baby Cat. Emerson. Andy. A week later, and we still aren't sure what we're going to call him, but no matter. He's ours.
I originally had plans to get a new cat when we moved. However, seeing that our house has now been on the market for over a year, and we haven't had a single bite, I didn't really want to wait anymore. The holes that Range's and Scoutie's deaths left in our lives have needed filling. I decided that for once I wasn't going to have a rescue cat. Not that anything has been wrong with them, but I wanted to actually buy a breed of cat. I grew up with full-bred Siamese and Abyssians, and it seemed fun. However, after visiting a cattery here in Pennsylvania, I recognized that it was going to be hard to find a pure bred cat that was well socialized. However, I wasn't going to give up. And it was then that Andy found us.
I have made many friends at Interlochen, and one of the nurses is a foster mom for animals for the local shelter in Traverse City. She had actually live-trapped a kitten a few weeks previous, and it was now time to find him a new home. When she posted a picture on the internet, I knew he was meant to be ours.
Ethan and Rebecca volunteered to drive up to Traverse City on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to pick him up, and Allison and Mark volunteered to drive him to PA the following day (Ethan and Rebecca spent Thanksgiving with her family). I could hardly wait to meet him!
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| Ethan informed us that if we didn't want him, he and Rebecca would gladly keep him :-) |
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| Three cool cats! |
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| At a gas station, watching swooping birds. |
I had planned some pampering activities for Hannie for the day before Thanksgiving--a massage, and a hair cut--and Allison, Glo and I got pedicures. Mark got a much-needed haircut also. No sooner had we stepped in the door then Mark and Allison got started on dinner. Holy smokes! Pasta with sausage and other goodies, and homemade pizza. It was so unlike anything that I make which is what might have made it even better! We all ate until we couldn't eat another bite. Those two do amazing things together!
Then, all of us (minus John who was stuck at the hospital) headed out to see "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". And sitting there in that theatre, I had one of those out-of-body moments. I anticipate family time for weeks (and sometimes even months), but once it happens, I really want to appreciate every second that we are together. Because, as all of my kids say, it goes by way too fast. The movie was really good, but being there together made it the best.
The next morning, we were planning on getting up early and getting everything in the oven, but unfortunately, John was still stuck at the hospital. I knew that it was going to take some finesse to delay the Thanksgiving feast until he could get several women delivered. The first step was encouraging everyone to sleep in :-)
By the time we were all up, Mark set to the task of cleaning out both the turkey, and the goose. Yes, John discovered that Wegman's sells geese as well as turkeys, so we all thought it would be an adventure to try one. Mark wasn't too excited about pulling out the giblet bags and such, but knowing that it's a "man dog" move to do it all, he jumped right in. Hannah stuffed the birds, and they were ready to go.
One of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving is having everyone take part in creating the meal. Growing up, it was always the mom of the house who did everything, but my kids have always been major players in getting everything ready. And once again, I admit that the food was really good, but having everyone in the kitchen together was the best.
 |
| In yet another way, Mark takes after John--always giving the pups their fare share of Thanksgiving leftovers :-) |
The second part of delaying the feast was creating gratitude headbands for our upcoming Turkey Trot. I hear about and see people making gratitude turkeys--paper turkeys with feathers that have things written on them that people are grateful for. I figured we could bedeck ourselves with those feathers for our run. Glo helped get everything ready for the feather creation, but leave it to my family to get more creative than just headbands. We had turkey tail feathers, amulet necklaces, warrior armbands. I'm not sure what everyone wrote on their feathers (nobody was really sharing), but I think it's good to remind ourselves of our blessed lives.
Crazy enough, the meal was ready to go just fifteen minutes before John showed up. I didn't let him get in the shower (despite not having showered for two days), but ushered him to the table. Man, goose is good to eat. As is stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, Frog Eye salad, cranberry jelly, green-bean casserole (at least in the yes of everyone but me), and baby crap. I even made homemade apple sauce because according to the internet, it goes quite well with goose :-)
We left everything on the counter afterwards though, because we still needed to run our Turkey Trot.
Last year, we ran a 5K Turkey Trot down in Boalsburg, but I didn't like the race at all. The course was brutal, and the shirts weren't that great. So, what do we Kennedys do when we don't like something but still want it to happen? We make our own! Yep, I got together the swag bag and and John planned the trail for the first annual Kennedy Turkey Trot.
Too bad we had to run it in the dark, cross-country style.
That's right. By the time we changed out of our nice Thanksgiving clothes and back into grungy running clothes, it was dark outside. So what else to do but turn on our iphone flashlights? I refused to run, because the memory of breaking my ankle on uneven surfaces still haunts me. However, John and Mark headed out for a 10K, and Allison, Glo and Hannah started their 5K. "Over the river and through the woods" has never been more applicable to something our family has done together. The trail was wet and slippery because of the rain.
 |
| Pre-run...when we were warm. And dry. And in the light. |
 |
| Hannah made Chief his own gratitude feather swag :-) |
Ethan reminded me that if I was indeed attacked, I needed to describe the attacker to him on the phone. Right. That was going to work just as well as me remembering which way to turn the steering wheel when my car is sliding out of control on ice. I'm supposed to turn the wheel WITH the direction of the back wheels, and yet after thirty years of driving, I still go with my gut and turn the wheel the opposite way. No doubt, when some strange man stepped from the forest, I was going to keep my cool and describe his height, weight and hair color.
Crazy thing was that I was worried I was actually going to have to do all of this when I saw lights down the path. Turns out, Hannie had rolled her ankle and was bent over crying. I began to walk her back to the car (secretly grateful to have someone with me on that dark and scary path), but after a few minutes, she insisted that she would be fine walking back alone, and that I should finish my "run".
Begrudgingly, I headed back up the trail....and I called Ethan back.
The walk itself was pretty dang short, but any difficult thing always is when I have Ethan on the phone. Until, I was headed back, and I saw a bobbing light ahead on the trail. What the heck?!
I honestly stopped dead in my tracks and began speaking REALLY LOUDLY to Ethan so that my would-be attacker would know that I would immediately sum up his appearance and relay that information to my son who was sacked out on a couch over 200 miles away.
And once again, I was the fool. It was HANNAH (for heaven's sake). When I asked her what she was doing, she told me that she's never not finished a race, and this wasn't going to be the first time. That might have been well and good for that moment, but she paid for it over the weekend.
We all ended up finishing, thank goodness, and earned our orange Nike hoodie pullovers. We decided to throw a quick bonfire in our fire pit, and burn our turkey hardware. Because it was raining outside, it was a ridiculous fire, kept alive only with several matches, old cardboard boxes, some newspaper, and some hope. We quickly went round and round, listing off the things we are thankful for as the fire died. It was a sweet moment, hearing the beautiful things my kids and husband are thankful for. We owe so much of it to each other and to our Heavenly Father.
After all this, we were so very tired. We watched a movie and headed to bed. We had big plans for Friday!
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