Planes, trains, buses

We left the snow behind this morning and headed for warmer climes and a Walt Disney World vacation. It may sound a little out of character for someone who has carefully avoided the machine that is Disney and other pop culture booby traps, but I have very fond memories of Florida and Disney World, none of them having anything to do with the usual character association. I'm hoping to repeat the experience for Calvin.

If nothing else, our transportation quota was met for today: driving to the airport; using escalators, moving walkways, and the tram (just for fun) in the terminal; taking the bus to the Disney resort. This was the first flight I have ever been on that produced a chorus of "wheeee!" with every sickening drop during landing. The cabin was abound with giggles.

The bus to the resort started us off with videos about the park while Calvin watched for interesting wildlife out the window. Disney makes it easy to vacation here. They picked us up at the airport and dropped us off at our resort, and they did the same for our luggage, picking it up and delivering it to our rooms so we didn't have to wait. Transportation within the resort area has been a breeze as well. We took a bus to Downtown Disney for dinner, which we ate with the dinosaurs at T-Rex Cafe.

For Calvin every step has been a hit. He rode and re-road the moving walkway, and tram rides at both airports were like icing on the cake. He was clearly nervous about the flying, but he handled it well, and by the time we were on descent he was oohing and aahing along with the others. And we were not at all surprised by his excitement over the dinosaurs at dinner. We experience no fewer than four major extinction episodes in the form of meteor showers while we were there, and had a chat with dinos and mammoths alike.

We're in bed now. Tomorrow will be busy. I have a feeling this will be the kind of vacation that warrants a spa weekend upon return home, but what great joy to find ourselves drinking in the warm sunshine in the middle of January.

Up north for new years, 2012

We always head to northern lower Michigan to celebrate a late Christmas and an on-time New Years with my Godmother. It's a trip we look forward to immensely for the silliness, serenity, and snow. Weather is weird this year, and we thought we were out of luck on that last bullet point, but nature delivered just as we were looking to head home, and we got an extra day out of that timing. As for the other two wish list items—silliness is no problem, but serenity is always at an arm's length with a five-year-old. Still, two out of three isn't bad.

More Christmas? Such a lucky boy. Look at those wonderful penguins.

Blue (the dog, not the Christmas)

Sleepy-heads

A cherry-berry pie from Jesperson's in Petoskey, photo taken five—literally five—minutes after we got home with it, still warm from their heavenly ovens.

The bushes were masquerading as dog/bear/snow/burlap people so Jack Frost (and possibly the deer) wouldn't recognize them. I was thoroughly fooled.

Jon and I got some of that serenity we were looking for by heading out the store for some last-minute necessities on New Year's Eve. To extend it a bit we walked, and we also added a few things to list of "necessities" that took us not only to the grocery store, but also into our favorite quaint little town, Harbor Springs. Whose to say that we wouldn't find "necessities" at their little book store?

Bot Bie is a family food tradition. It fits the definition of comfort food to tee—warm, filling, and not so very good for you.

You'd think he'd done all the cooking...

Last nap of 2011.

And finally the snow has arrived.

This is what a chickadee looks like head-on. He makes me giggle.

The bear/dog/snow/burlap people say "Happy New Year!"

And now we're home, the blog is "caught up", Michigan has won the Sugar Bowl (in a not-so-pretty game), and 2012 can get underway.

Giving thanks

Thanksgiving is about a lot of things for a lot of people. For us it's about family, and good food. Thankfully both of our families live right here in town so we get to share the holiday with both of them. We had a wonderful time with good company and good food, and today we slept in and lounged in our pajamas before starting to spread Christmas throughout the house, then enjoyed more family time with shopping and laughter and more good food.

The rest of the weekend promises to be equally as busy and joyous with football, tree chopping, and a train show. I hope everyone else having a great holiday as well.

 

Let the baking begin

We started the pie yesterday with a number of local organic pie pumpkins, baking, pureeing, and draining them overnight. The smell of Thanksgiving all through the house...two days early.

So why, then, did I spend all of today thinking that tomorrow was Thanksgiving Eve?

Thanksgiving Eve. The biggest pizza night of the year. Even bigger than the Super Bowl. We had lasagna.

We started our day the usual way—with some reading, some exercise, then heading to swimming...only to find that the swim bag did not contain a swim suit. It happens to the best of us. Reschedule swimming, pick up the last couple of things at the store, lunch, and let the baking begin.

Calvin was a big help this year. He cracked eggs, he measured all the solids, he added all the liquids, he handled the mixer and ran the grinder. We baked the pumpkin pie, froze the leftover puree, made the cranberry relish, then drew mammoths, rhinos, caves.

Jon was home early—early enough to take Calvin to the swimming class make-up while I made lasagna for dinner and did the mountain of dishes we'd already created. And the house still smells like Thanksgiving.

The mammoths, rhinos, and caves were probably my favorite part.

Confidence

Legos, piano, kitchen counter science, and romping outside in the brilliant fall sunshine are the things that have dominated the last few days here. Today was library book sale day and we came home with two bags of treasure to enjoy. Jon played in his first piano recital in years this afternoon and we all delighted in his talent, and in the family time that inevitably follows such an event. The leaves have just about all fallen by now, and hot tea and evening fire weather is just around the corner.

Our journey through history is now well into the Cenozoic Era, and this week we'll be touring some painted caves in France, and making our way to the land bridge and into the Americas, where our ancestors will meet up with some of the fantastic mammals we've been reading about.

In September I purchased an American history curriculum by Intellego. I was drawn to it for the same reason that I'm drawn to clothing ads in the Sunday paper—I have no confidence in my ability to plan appropriately, be it my clothes for a day, or a journey through the history of our continent.

So I bought the curriculum for the security it could provide. And you know what? It worked, in a Dumbo's feather kind of way. It took until now to get to it because we were delayed in the Paleo and Mesozoic Eras, which was fun, but now we've arrived in the Cenozoic and are at the moment of the Beringia land bridge, which is where Intellego picks up. This weekend I broke out the curriculum only to find that it is mostly a collection of links to other people's free curricula online, with suggestions for activities on the side. So you see, the more I read it, the more confident I am that I could have figured this all out for myself. I was looking for confidence, after all.