Thanksgiving weekend

Well, this certainly was the busiest Thanksgiving I've had in a long while!  Or maybe ever.

Wednesday:

Afternoon: The cantor at temple resigned.  

Evening: Took part in an interfaith Pre-Thanksgiving Unity service at a local church, with 10 other faith groups; temples, mosques, churches of different denominations, even a Bahai group.

Thursday:

Early morning: We cleaned our house.  It desperately needed it.  

Late morning: I took the kids to a local park to meet up with Jamie, a friend who I met at a now-defunct CAJE (Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education) Conference back in 2002.  We're both married now and have families.  Crazy world.

And guess who I saw while there, in the middle of a park in Florida?  My rabbinic colleague and past Cincinnati roommate Maura and her family, who was visiting family in FL!!  Talk about random.

Afternoon/evening: We were invited to a congregant's for Thanksgiving dinner, which was lovely.  Their eldest daughter turned 21 the day before Thanksgiving, and Connor turned two on Saturday, so we brought a cake for dessert.

Blowing out the birthday candles.

Friday:

Early morning: More house-cleaning for me  Grocery shopping for Jonathan.  

Late morning/afternoon: Connor's birthday party!

There are about a hundred pictures to download from the phone.  Yeah. Haven't gotten to that yet.  We were originally going to say, "no gifts," but then stopped ourselves, because we realized we wanted the older boys to respect his birthday and know that gifts aren't just for them.  And what a lesson it's been!  Hard to learn, but well worth it.  Connor has new trucks and cars and trains and dinosaurs and balls, and is in love with them all.

Evening:

Services with volunteer singers.  2nd Thanksgiving dinner at a congregant's.  I was so full I rolled home.  The babysitter took the boys bike-riding, and they had a fabulous time without us.

Saturday:

Morning: Officiated at a Bat Mitzvah with a guest cantor.  

Afternoon: Went to a 7 year old birthday party at a park.  

Evening: Officiated at a wedding.  Jonathan came with.  The ceremony was good but it was so windy my hair kept blowing in my face, and the papers were blowing away!  Arg.  The party was crazy awesome; the bride is Peruvian, and they brought in full-on Carnivale dancers, complete with costumes and a man in stilts and masks and hats for everyone on the dance floor.  We didn't even get served the main course til 10pm!  Which we were very surprised by, until we googled "Latin weddings" on the way home and what do you know, they traditionally last all night long and you don't start eating til 10 or 11.  The things you learn.

On the way home from the wedding our car started making odd noises and jerking a lot.  It was not fun.

Sunday:

Morning/afternoon: The mechanic confirmed that we needed to replace 6 spark plugs and 2 injector coils.  $700 later, our van runs smoothly.  We had been planning a playdate but couldn't fit all 3 kids in the Leaf, so the friend picked up Jonathan from the mechanic's, then came home, took Xander and I in her car, and then they dropped us back off again so we could get the car.  Quite a day.

We were supposed to see someone else in the evening, but instead we collapsed.

Next year Thanksgiving weekend, we've decided, we're staying in!!

(Edited to add: I have no idea why this post won't center and right-justify properly.  I think there's a bug in the system.  Sorry.)