Today is my first official day of vacation. I am taking the week off to begin Thanksgiving preparations. I don’t actually need the whole week to prepare, but always like to spend a day attending to household projects that get neglected throughout the year – touch up painting, going through closets and giving away clothes that the kids have outgrown, organizing our storage room and working on things that I have put off due to lack of time. Today is project day, tomorrow is cleaning day and Wednesday is cooking/baking day. By Thursday, we will be set to host our 19th Annual Sullivan Thanksgiving for 12 people + two dogs.
Before I delve into “project day”, here’s a recap of what’s been going on in our household during the past few weeks.
Thanks to the end of daylight savings time, it is just getting light out when I leave for work in the morning and is dark when I leave work at the end of the day. Here’s what I see when I leave my office. I can’t wait until the days begin getting longer even though the sunsets are beautiful.
Sebastian’s basketball season began a week and a half ago. In his first game, he scored the first six points for his team. He has the same coach as last year, the mother of one teammate’s and good friend. We are looking forward to a great season with several returning kids from last year, plus a few new team members.
When Sebastian isn’t busy with basketball practice or games, he has been diligent in his music studies. This year in band he is learning to play an instrument – the baritone. His teacher has asked all students to practice with their instrument’s for at least 10 minutes per day. They haven’t learned how to play the various notes yet, but need concentrate on producing sound and the proper hold on the instrument. Here’s what happens during practice with our dog, Daphne, in the room.
Daphne has been recovering slowly and continues to take a half tablet of prednisone every other day. She had her 8th birthday yesterday and celebrated with a new toy – a rubber chicken.
Sophia continues to take gymnastic classes on Tuesday evenings. She loves her teacher and enjoys an hour of balance beams, floor mat exercises and parallel bars. She has also been busy at school with her weekly choir group and a performance for a Veteran’s Day all-school assembly. She talks about having a bit of stage fright, but really enjoys music. We are looking forward to watching her class perform The Grinch Who Stole Christmas in a few weeks and the school’s winter music program in mid-December.
We did a quick family photo shoot after church yesterday in preparation for our annual holiday card. With my remote shutter release in hand, we snapped many, many photos in the hopes that we would end up with a few good pictures. By the end of the day, the photos had been edited, uploaded, organized in a card and 50 copies were ordered. With a number of discounts applied, I was able to get 60% off my order and had them shipped for free! It’s nice to have that project crossed off my list in only mid-November. We had thought of waiting until we received some snow to make for a more “holiday” card, but if recent years are any indication, we would have been waiting until January. Here are a few pictures that didn’t make the card.
Our big news this month is that after 14 long years with our old SUV, we purchased a new 2013 Nissan Pathfinder a little more than a week ago. Sebastian has been awaiting the arrival of the newly designed vehicle for months. When it finally arrived at the dealership, he was beyond excited. After test-driving the optioned out model, the whole family was in love. We decided on a lesser trim level to fit our budget and were able to get one brought in from the Twin Cities that matched all of our requests. We are in love!
We can’t wait to try out the 4WD after the first snow of the season. Speaking of the weather, although there is no snow in the forecast, the week ahead looks to be spectacular for northern Minnesota in November – highs in the 50’s and no precipitation in sight. I guess we will have to use the sun roof instead of the 4WD for now. I’m not complaining.
M. Sullivan Photography 