November was busy.
One Sunday morning we woke up late and decided to skip church. Jim offered to fix breakfast while I worked out, and did a terrific job as always of providing fried cornbread for all. However, I guess he had to search a minute or two too long to find our nonstick griddle! By the end of the day he had wrestled us all through a complete reorganization of our kitchen, a kitchen-wide examination of things we didn't need or use anymore, and two trips to Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy new things to both organize and stock our kitchen. An entire new set of pots and pans (Calphalon) was the main new acquisition. They hang from the ceiling over the island now, MUCH more accessible, if he does say so himself. :)
I sorted through and typed up a bunch of my Grandma McEowen's recipe collection over the last couple of months, and I've been trying some of the recipes now that they are more accessible. This was HER mother's Sausage, Sweet Potato & Apple Casserole, which was delicious indeed.
I found a good recipe for pie crust that apparently even I can handle in the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens, which made it slightly more likely that I might succeed at pie. So I tried it, with Lavon Olinger's old-fashioned cream pie recipe, and it was a success qualified only by the fact that I still can't make a nice crimped edge. I later tried my Grandma Hollopeter's cream pie recipe with the same crust, and found that it was even more delicious.
This is from a recipe from one of my grandma's purchased cookbooks, Best of Country Cooking. It's called Posse Stew, and it called for hamburger, but naturally I used ground buffalo meat instead. Very good.
We had a complete shutout of large family Thanksgiving celebrations this year, having not been invited to the Buche/Lowry feast held at Knight's, and having had a deer-Mini crash on our way to the McEowen feast in Indiana. But we did have Thanksgiving dinner at home, just the four of us, followed by a leisurely afternoon at the movie theatre, seeing Tangled. Turkey with raspberry sauce, green beans, peas and carrots, honey sunflower bread, fruit with brie and pecans, sparkling juice, and cream pie for dessert.
In keeping with tradition I decorated our house for Christmas on December 1, and the tree looks lovely. :)
The stockings are hung by the chimney with care...
Various creches and other decorations on the coffee table...
And my Lego village has taken on a new element this year...the bakery has joined the toy shop.
Having missed everyone in Indiana, the next day we took a quick trip to Mom and Dad's to see them and Ryan and Melissa, who were also there for the day. Photo op in hollow tree!
Dad took Esme to her piano lesson one afternoon, and as they were running quite early, they stopped off for a hot drink at Biggby.
Another day Esme had completely off from school, even though Aidan had to go (a district juggling of hours-type day off), and Daddy took her bowling.
This is Flat Stanley Thompson, a young friend of ours visiting from California. He has come to learn all he can about life in Byron Center with the Lowry family, and we're doing our best to show him a good time. When he returns to California, he will share everything he has learned with Joe and his third-grade class in Glendora.
First we showed Stanley around our town - the giant cement chicken.
Welcome to Byron Center, Stanley!
We took Stanley to Marge's Donut Den, where he was treated like royalty.
We showed Stanley the lighthouse at Holland and the Lake Michigan shore.
We gave Stanley a tour of Grand Rapids, our "big city".
We had lunch at Rose's on Reeds Lake, a delicious enterprise.
Jim took Stanley on a business trip to Chicago, where he got to see the other end of Route 66...
...and the Sears Tower...
...and stayed at the Parker House Hotel, all decked out for Christmas.
They also had sushi for dinner with Melissa and Ryan, who happened to be in town visiting Ryan's grandma for Thanksgiving.
A nutritious breakfast in the executive lounge is part of any successful business trip.
Back at home again, Stanley joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.
We also went to see Tangled on Thanksgiving!
Stanley shared some popcorn with Esme and was careful to be quiet during the movie.
We took Stanley to visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, which he thought was all that.
We know the Thompsons like MINIs so we made sure to take photos of Stanley with our MINI Cooper Clubman.
Above the car is an ArtPrize exhibit entitled "Steam Pig".
On our way to Indiana (we were less than 10 miles from home, actually), we hit a deer. I was driving, there were two deer in the road and nowhere to go to avoid them. I managed to slow down from about 74 mph to about 35-40 mph, so it could perhaps be called a "gentle" collision. One of the deer made it, running, completely off the road, so it was no longer an issue. The other one hit the windshield with its head, swung around and hit the back driver's side window, and then fell in the road with a broken back leg. It GOT UP, and was hit AGAIN by another car before getting off the road, where it had to be stabbed three times and shot at point-blank range in the head TWICE before dying.
We got the car off on the shoulder. After checking to be sure everyone was basically okay, Jim got out to help the other driver deal with the deer, and I took stock of the car and children. The kids were fine. Esme started screaming when she realized she was covered with broken glass, but was quickly calmed. Aidan didn't really react at all. We got out of the car and away from the road, where I quickly realized Aidan didn't even really know what had happened. Explanations all around and we waited for the Allegan County Sheriff's Department. A Wildlife Management officer also came, to help deal with the whole killing-the-deer part of the accident. We were only outside in the cold for about 45 minutes all told, and for a few minutes the sheriff let the kids get in his car to warm up. We drove back home in our broken car.
Stanley thought the whole thing was so exciting, viewed from under a pile of books and musical instruments in our cargo area. :)
On Sunday we went to Mom and Dad's to visit, and Stanley got a thorough lesson in logging and lumbering.
And of course Esme gave him a complete woods tour, including a stopover in the hollow tree.
Back on the road for business again, Jim and Stanley took a whirlwind tour of New York City, including Times Square...
...Rockefeller Center...
...Radio City Music Hall...
...The Shake Shack in Madison Square Garden...
...The Plaza Hotel, where Eloise of juvenile fiction fame lives...
...and Central Park...
...and of course, the Empire State Building!
On the way home, the boys took advantage of a stopover in Cleveland to at least think about visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Thanks for visiting us, Stanley! We have had such a wonderful time showing you around!