Thanksgiving

The holidays mean trains at the Botanic Garden!

A little late here...We had a super nice Thanksgiving.  Carlos' mom and sister were here as well as a very important extra guest: Quita!  Quita is about a 1.5 feet long and probably weighs less than Sofia.  Yes - she is a dog and the kids couldn't get enough of her.  They chased her around the house, poking, prodding, hugging and pulling at her.  Poor dog.  At one point I was in the kitchen cooking and Sofia was quietly playing at the train table in the living room when Quita walked in.  Sofia erupted into squeals of "doggie, doggie, doggie," her arms flailed wildly and she ran as fast as she could towards Quita.  Luckily Quita is bit faster and could escape her grasps.  The entire visit was like that!    They didn't tire of Quita at all, but the poor dog was certainly tired of them.

Quita wasn't the only excitement.  The kids loved having Veronika and Abuela here and they seem to have as much energy as the kids. They took the kids rock climbing which was a highlight especially for Charlie.  And Tia Mary came in for Thanksgiving dinner which was lucky because without her expertise, I think the turkey and I would have just spent most of the day staring at each other.  It was a delicious meal and just nice to be together.

Of course there were a few mishaps.  Like when I fed Carlos something that gave him his worst allergic reaction to date.  His eyes were so swollen he could barely see and his whole mid-section was covered in hives.  It was terrible and the swelling lasted more than 24 hours.  Or how we went on our annual pilgrimage to the Middleburg Christmas tree farm and spent an hour roaming the farm in the bitter cold only to decide that there was no tree for us there.  As if in revenge, our car died and needed a jump.  Carlos went down the road to a tree stand and found a great looking tree in about 2 minutes!  On top of all that we gave Veronika and Abuela whatever terrible illness we've been passing around. Despite all that, it was a nice Thanksgiving.