November 2018

Somehow November slid past us! Helen and Pop-pop and Robert raked leaves. Samantha and Helen played in them. Marcus took artistic photos of squirrels fattening up for the winter and played with rope knots and trees and sticks and knives, rigging things up in trees with friends and making bows and arrows on his own.

At various points this month, we had a dinner with Bible translators from Northern Thailand during the PSC Missions Conference; we went out to all-you-can-eat sushi with the Wineys and their brother-in-law's family and posed near the Trump "Big Baby" inflatable; we left Helen with my parents and went to see "Potted Potter" (all seven Harry Potter books on stage with two actors in seventy minutes--grand finale, a duet of "I Will Survive" with Harry and Voldemort singing together); and we joined friends for dim sum.

 

Marcus and Robert went to the Boy Scout flag-burning ceremony on Veterans' Day in a cemetary in West Roxbury, and Samantha made an amazing corn husk doll in Girl Scouts.

Robert declared Veterans' Day (observed) a "Take Your Child to Work" day, and Samantha came into work with him, very productively reading and drawing dragons for much of the day, while of course joining the company for donuts for breakfast and dim sum for lunch. On other days, as weather permits, there have been a few bike-to-school days.

I made hats for Samantha, Helen, and me--Marcus is in a quandary because he wants to match Helen but not Samantha.

Marcus did two more cooking classes on Saturdays--a Moroccan meal one and a Parisian sweets one--and loved both of them.

Despite the early wake-ups, our cellists are doing great in orchestra and private lessons. Samantha graduated to the next-level cello book, and Marcus is getting some lovely sound out of his instrument. On days when they are running early going to orchestra, a Starbucks stop is in the offing, and on Fridays, Samantha and Chloe turned the Parents' Coffee Hour into a Kids' Tea Time.

Marcus's chamber ensembles (four of them) opened for the Boston Symphony Orchestra chamber ensemble at a BSO Community Engagement concert at Bunker Hill Community College this month. It was pretty cool to have their photo taken with the real BSO strings players.

Samantha's choir sang in church.

Marcus and Robert went to a Magic night at the local comic book shop.

Helen shrieks with glee when catching sight of a picture of Evie on my phone. "THAT MY FRIEND EVIE!" she yells (because she yells everything...). When we had to bring Evie to daycare one day, she was thrilled to have Evie at our house in the morning and then on the subway with us. People gave us a wiiiiiiiiiide berth: two worn babies, two bigger kids, five bags among us, plus a cello!

Helen hosted innumerable doll picnics and tea parties. Sometimes, the invited guests included "Nana" (Samantha, still) and Pop-pop.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house with a spatch-cocked turkey dry-brined for fast and flavorful cooking.

On the Friday after Thanksgiving (of course), we participated in the F.A.T. at M.I.T. chain reaction for our fourth time. Our reaction was super cool, and almost successful, and despite the frantic last-minute work, we all had a great time.

 

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we had brunch with friends at our place. Lots of hide and seek and poker and foosball were played, and I made fresh donuts during the party.

Samantha and Roman made ornaments at the Roslindale tree-lighting ceremony, though they missed the dogs-in-holiday-sweaters contest.

Debbie and Chris, in town for the One True Thanksgiving, came over for dinner and we ordered in Thai food and ate and talked and made fun of Canada and wished they'd move back to Boston again. Helen ordered Chris around and placed books in his hand, and he rose to the challenge.

We went to the Museum of Science the Sunday after Thanksgiving, and Robert continued his tradition (you have to scroll down...) of feeding children to dinosaurs. We saw the temporary space exhibit that included a toilet from the space station, among other exciting things, and Marcus broke the record for the day for most weight transported by a soap-dish boat.

 

We're ready for December!

 

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Created: 11/28/18. Last Modified: 11/28/18.