It's 7 Quick Takes Friday! How was your week?
Originally, our plan for Thanksgiving had been to get together with some friends, but we cancelled when some people in our family got sick. Thankfully, we were all better by that weekend so we had them over for pie on Sunday.
It was really nice, considering that our actual Thanksgiving was so small without our two oldest kids there. (Our oldest is at college, and we decided to fly our 16-year-old out there to visit her and have Thanksgiving dinner with our family that lives in the area.)
The state has been doing some work on the power lines near our house. For several days last month, heavy machinery went back and forth building an enormous wooden walkway out to the middle of the field where the lines were.
—1—
I don't know what I was thinking, but I went to the mall on Black Friday. I know, I know. But I honestly didn't think it would be that crowded because (1) it was afternoon and (2) who goes to the mall anymore?
I get my kids' pictures taken at J.C. Penney every year around their birthdays, and it didn't even occur to me when I made the appointment that on Black Friday, everyone in the world would be in front of us in line wearing their Christmas pajamas to get a cute photo for their holiday cards.
—2—
I did actually do some shopping that weekend, though. My 14-year-old needed some clothes, and we had to visit a few separate stores, but found everything we needed.
Since we'd been so successful, I told my son that we should go back and return one of the more expensive pairs of pants we'd bought him earlier.
"How much were they?" he wanted to know.
"$40."
"$40??" he exclaimed. "That's, like, ten chicken parm subs!"
I know he likes getting chicken parmesan sub sandwiches on his breaks at work, but I didn't know he likes them so much he uses them as a unit of measurement.
—3—
Originally, our plan for Thanksgiving had been to get together with some friends, but we cancelled when some people in our family got sick. Thankfully, we were all better by that weekend so we had them over for pie on Sunday.
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| I forgot to take pictures of the pie, but here's Phillip and the 8-year-old making the whipped cream. |
It was really nice, considering that our actual Thanksgiving was so small without our two oldest kids there. (Our oldest is at college, and we decided to fly our 16-year-old out there to visit her and have Thanksgiving dinner with our family that lives in the area.)
—4—
The 16-year-old says she had a really good time. She learned to navigate the airport complete with a layover each way, and figured out how to use the city bus/train system there, too.
She spent a few days staying at her aunt's house and visiting campus with her sister, and then they all took a road trip (along with their uncle, their other aunt, and the three dogs they share between them) to a third aunt's house for Thanksgiving dinner.
In the past, she's gotten nauseous on long car rides so I decided to try these motion sickness bands. Have you heard of them? Whether they actually worked or whether it was just a mind trick, I don't know. But she said she didn't feel sick, so I consider it $8 well spent.
—5—
The state has been doing some work on the power lines near our house. For several days last month, heavy machinery went back and forth building an enormous wooden walkway out to the middle of the field where the lines were.
Then it sat quiet for a while, and recently they brought all the heavy machines back and removed all the wood planks. Other than building and taking down the walkway, I never saw them actually doing anything out there.
And then a few days after that, the workers came back and inexplicably spread hay all over the area.
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"It's like an A.I. is generating tasks for them to do or something," my 14-year-old said. Which actually would explain a lot about why government organizations work the way they do.
—6—
Our library just recently started what it calls the Library of Things. You can check out stuff besides just books and movies. They don't have a ton because it's fairly new, but I just checked out a telescope.
Phillip and the 11-year-old tried it out briefly one night while I was gone (I think it was pants-shopping night with my son) but we really need to take it somewhere with no trees on a clear night for a better viewing experience.
In the meantime, it's sitting in a Rubbermaid tote in our hallway and I'm really hoping the kids don't break it first.
—7—
Well, it's December now so I guess that means it's time to start thinking about Christmas. I've been talking a lot to my Spanish language exchange partners about how they celebrate in their countries.
I guess it never really occurred to me before, but there is a whole other world of Latin Christmas music that I've never even heard.
I can think of a few Christmas songs I hear on the radio every year (I'm looking at you, Wham!) that I wouldn't mind being replaced with a few good villancicos.
1 comment:
#1 is so funny, because I did a similar thing! I realized that we were out of diapers (we were visiting family out of state so we didn't have our usual cloth diaper stash) and decided that I'd just swing by Target. It wasn't until I saw the packed parking lot that I realized my error haha! Thankfully, it was the afternoon by that point and not as busy as it could have been.
It's also nice to hear that the bands worked for nausea! People told me about those when I was pregnant with my first child, but I never actually looked into them because I didn't see how a little band on your wrist could help with nausea. I should have set my misgivings aside and checked those out!
Also, it is very cool that your library is starting that! A friend at church once told me about a library that lends out specialty cake pans, which is great for when you want star cake for Christmas or the Fourth of July but don't want to buy a pan to use only one time a year. I'm hoping that our library eventually gets to that point; about a year ago they started offering museum passes (they always seem to be checked out whenever I think to look, unfortunately), which I think is pretty cool.
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