Thanksgiving

We had our mini-family Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, stuffing, pie, and platters of food, properly enjoyed, yet still languishing in our fridge (HOORAY! Megan's on her way right now to help us eat the leftovers and adding some variety with her special Thanksgiving dishes!). While we spent Thursday cooking and tackling dishes after dishes, we did talk a lot about the things we are thankful for. I was impressed with Zoë's attention to detail in her Thanks:

• I am thankful that we went to IKEA and Mommy made me a dresser and a nice room. 
• I am thankful for having the best Mommy and Daddy (awwww...) and I want to be best buddies forever.
• I am thankful for my teacher and friends
• I am thankful for Choo choo baby and my toys 

We decided to put these phrases on scraps of paper. Our poor pepper tree which lost its leaves, mainly in Hurricane Sandy, and bore us several nice peppers served as the base of our Thankfulness tree. We restored its splendor with fresh new leaves of gratitude and love. It was a really fun project and I think we will make it our Thanksgiving tradition -- the Thankfulness Tree.
Since we are never here for the Holidays, the Christmas tree tradition may just morph into this new version? Not quite the same, though. Hmmm...

Speaking of traditions and gratitude, we have been trying this new thing at dinner time: "Happies and Sads". Every day we each share our best and worst part of the day. It's a lot of fun to hear Zoë's assessment -- they are always more thoughtful than I would have imagined. It is nice to hear her appreciate the big and small in her life -- from playing outside, to reading with Mommy, or sitting in Daddy's lap for dinner... and also interesting to hear what upsets her -- someone pushed someone else at school, or hurt someone's feelings ... I guess this growing awareness offers the surest signs about how she is maturing.  Of course, she is growing and saying smarter things, but somehow it is the emotional growth that amazes me.

Zoë and I had a wonderful Friday (alas! Daddy had to work this day). We went to the pottery store and painted some gifts for her teachers. We will have to wait until next week to pick them up and see the finished product (stay tuned!). Then we went to cash in on Zoë's reward jar. Since she was such a great kid this past week, she got to have her nails painted! We went to the nail salon (yes, it couldn't simply be that Mommy painted her nails) next to Ballet class and Zoe chose a bright orange nail polish, that I'm sure only can look good on a little kid after all. Then a hot cocoa at Praline cafe. Then? A trip to the library for a fresh set of books! In Zoës words (well, paraphrased from Eloise, which was from our last library run): "Quite a day!" followed by a 2.5 hour nap. Whew!

I think we have a few more fun plans for this weekend. But I am especially excited to shop for Eddie with Zoë, a little boy that we are buying gifts for the Holidays, through a volunteer gift-giving program, the Angel Tree, at Zoe's school.

We are gearing up for the holidays -- the travel, the gifts, the plans. Oh! The fun...