Happy Thanksgiving!

Again, I'm slow to update around here. It was great to have a three day week - it flew by. This afternoon my students and I did a major cleaning session in the classroom. I also stayed late and put up new bulletin boards and just got some extra jobs done so that when I come back on Monday everything will seem nice and organized.

When I got home Carly was standing at the top of the steps wearing her paper pilgrim bonnet that they made in school today. It is so cute and I will get a picture posted of her wearing it this weekend. School is going well for her. She and her little girlfriends have been exchanging those little classroom photos. She brought hers in today and was quite excited about it. I thought it was cute that girls this little were doing this. I asked her teacher if this was common and she said that kindergartners don't usually do this but one little girl brought hers in and they all jumped on it.

School is going well for Ellen too. I was listening to her practice her saxophone last night and was surprised at how much she has learned in such a short amount of time. I have no doubt that being able to play the piano made it much easier to pick up on another instrument.

Paul and I got several things ready for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. We'll be on our own. I made a pumpkin pie and a jello salad (sea foam). Paul got the dressing ready. Tomorrow morning we'll get the turkey going, put together a relish tray and a couple of side dishes. We're cooking the turkey in the oven rather than frying it this year - this means we'll have real gravy and not a packet mix.

Friday I plan to go shopping after the initial Black Friday rush passes by. Saturday we'll head down to Duluth again for another hockey game. UMD beat North Dakota 3-1 this past Saturday. That hasn't happened since the 92-93 season. It was a great game. It's always a full house when UND is at the Decc. It's much more fun when there are no empty seats. The student section is just a couple away from where we sit and they are a lot more lively this year. They must drink more before the games. After Super Fan graduated, the student section was a little dead. Now they seem to have another student who has stepped up to get them going. You often see him at the front leading things. All of the same season ticket holders held onto their seats for another year. They're all friendly, nice people. All the kids get older. One young family a couple rows in front of us used to just be three people and now there are five of them. Last week they came all dressed up. They must have been at a wedding. The mom and two little boys came at the beginning of the game. The dad and daughter came during the second period. The dad was wearing a suit with a boutonniere (love spellcheck). Usually the five of them are decked out in UMD clothes. When the new arena is built I'll be sad if their seats aren't close to ours. It's nice that I can watch the games without a kid on my lap. I used to miss so many goals because I was taking care of something with one of the girls.

It's our 14th wedding anniversary today. I pulled a statue off my shelf today that is going to pass as an anniversary gift for Paul. I did that last year too. I doubt he'll remember.

I'll post some pictures of our thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.