Monday, November 30, 2009

Too Much Holiday

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and are in recovery mode from too much holiday (as the Berenstain Bears would say). I would have welcomed Monday morning with the now-we-can-get-back-to-our-routine, but we had early morning appointments for SaraGrace and Kate at Boston Children's Hospital. We were given very good news! SaraGrace's conduit is still working well, and she most likely will not need open heart surgery this year! Woohoo! The cardiologist said he will just continue to monitor her.

Kate also was given a good report. The doctor wants to do more testing on both girls--and mentioned exploring the possibility of trying a full repair for Kate. He said that although her surgeon at U of M is one of the best in the country for that type of surgery, he still wanted to check into the possibility of giving her a full repair since she does have two ventricles. Interesting...

And now for a re-cap of Thanksgiving....


Getting ready...

...to eat lots of this

and this.

Grandma turns on her "light-up sweater" to delight the grandchildren

My very cute nephew and his pretty Mama

Grandma brought supplies to make a gingerbread house

Lookin' good!

Kate and Grandpa were snuggle bugs

And then, after dinner on Thanksgiving Day, my mom suggested that we take a group to Plymouth to look at the Mayflower. So off we went...

My niece puts her head in the giant lobster

OK--forgive me for this photo. I know it's kind of dark, but there was an Asian family posing and since I can be a stink-bug, I thought it would be fun to take their photo. If you have ever been to China, you will know that it is customary for complete strangers to come up to you and ask to take a photo with you--or, if you are getting a family photo taken, strangers will also come up and take the same photo. It always cracks me up! My girls were mortified that I took a picture of total strangers...ha.

The Mayflower at dusk. The boat was open, so my brother and his family toured it. How cool is that? They walked on the Mayflower on Thanksgiving Day!

The Mayflower life boat

And then, BLACK FRIDAY!! I don't have a clue why I subject myself to this somewhat ridiculous tradition, but I must confess to looking forward to it for months. There is just something special about Christmas music, decorations, lunch with my mom (and now my girls are old enough to join us), etc.

Girls' lunch at The Cheesecake Factory

This time, there was a very sweet surprise. We live by....drum roll... an American Girl store! We have never been to one and wow...it was amazing. It was so fun to watch my girls wander the store and point out their favorite dolls, stories, and outfits. My mom scored us some seats in the American Girl Cafe, where we treated the girls to some milkshakes. So fun!!


American Girl Cafe--they let the girls borrow a doll to 'eat' with them

My girls

We had a wonderful weekend...lots of bonding that will have to tide us over until the next visit.


Best Buddies

Despite his doting admirers, this little guy ate his breakfast without missing a beat