Birthdays

November has a busy couple of weeks in it for my family. Simeon's birthday is followed by mine (Ruth) and then my mother's. So it's only now that I'm starting to get in the Christmas spirit - who can think about Christmas when you've got two weeks of cake and ice cream???
This year's celebrations were fantastic. My parents hosted Simeon's birthday so all I had to do was make a cake and for my birthday we went to our friend's place for supper - easy peasy :) My parents and sister came over and let me do mom's birthday which was a lot of fun. I love playing the host and hopefully she enjoyed a meal that she didn't have to prepare herself.
Sean gave me a shopping trip to Ten Thousand Villages' annual sale. That's what we did last year as well and I'm a big fan of the tradition.
I'm so glad that my birthday falls in November because (I will finally admit) November is probably the most miserable month of the year - March is strong competition. It usually has terrible calendar photos because even professional photographers can't find anything worth shooting. BUT when you've got presents and great food to look forward to; the weather doesn't matter so much. And once the Great Birthday Bonanza is over and the dust has settled: Wham! It's Christmas season and everybody's happy again.
I apologize since I know this doesn't help you, but try to find your own silver lining to November. It really is a great month. You just have to look a bit harder.
Simeon, of course, wasn't pondering any of this. He just wanted to dig in to his cake!

He was very enthusiastic about blowing out his candle, in fact we had to relight it because he did it as soon as the cake was set down. I guess he wanted dessert.My oldest sister was home for a visit and Simeon got to see his cousins, who were very good at showing him how to rip into those presents. 3 years old!

Catching up on holidays

As promised (almost a month ago) here are a couple pictures from Thanksgiving. We got to spend time with both our families and enjoyed VERY yummy meals. At the Carroll's everyone went for a canoe paddle before dinner. Here's Simeon trying to look busy while everybody else is unloading the gear.He had a great time skimming his fingers through the water - while Grampy did all the paddling. He's a smart boy.

This year was the first time that Simeon went trick-or-treating. He only went to a few houses but made out like a bandit none the less. He was pretty good about saying "trick or treat" but his favourite part of the routine was giving everyone a big ROAR! After all, he is a very scary lion. Felicity was dressed as either a duck or a chicken, her costume was a bit ambiguous but she looked pretty darn cute whichever she was.
We had some of Sean's students come to our door and they were intensely disappointed when I answered the door. I explained that Sean had our son out and they'd probably meet him up the street when I spotted Sean heading back to the house. They turned around and (no joke) started screaming "Mr. Carroll, Mr. Carroll!!!!". I had no idea that I was married to such a rock star lol.