December Update

Is it really December already? It's hard to believe how fast this year is flying by. Last week, we had Thanksgiving at my parents' house. It was such a small gathering, everyone fit at one table, which is rare for my family. Dinner was delicious and Aaron tried a little of almost everything. His favorite by far was my sister's cranberry dish, which she makes from fresh cranberries. (As she pointed out, the are mostly sugar).

He also liked my dad's glace (I'm not sure if that is the right spelling but I'm sure my dad will comment with the correct spelling if it's not.) They are a German potato dumpling and his mother always made them for her family and for as long as I can remember, he has made them for Thanksgiving and Christmas for our family. They start 10 days before Thanksgiving when he sets out 10 slices of bread on a cookie sheet to dry out. I'm not sure that they really get any more dried out after about the 3rd day, but that is the tradition. Later they are ground up into bread crumbs and mixed with potatoes that have been through the food processor (although in recent years he has started using a hand cranked meat grinder that give the potatoes a little more texture.) I'm not sure what else goes into them, but the resulting dumplings are then cooked in the turkey pan in gravey for 20 minutes after the turkey comes out.

Glace are very dense dumplings. When Lia saw Aaron eating some, she joked that we wouldn't be able to pick him up afterwards. We have a lot of family jokes about glace. Some members of the family won't eat it at all and others look forward to it. Eating glace is a rite of passage for potential in-laws as well.

Although I worked a little over the weekend, mostly I enjoyed a little extra time with Thom (who had Friday off) and Aaron. This week, I am preparing to go to a business conference in Las Vegas. It will be the first time I'm away from Aaron overnight. I'll be gone two nights. Kim is working 2 long days to cover while I'm gone and Thom is going to work from home on Thursday (with Kim working 1/2 a day that day), the day I return. I don't like to fly and since it is a 6 hour drive, my parents and I are driving out together. They want to go for a visit - my dad knows someone out there - and they offered to keep me company on the drive.

I'm nervous about being away from Aaron, but I know he will be fine with Thom and Kim. I just think it will be confusing for him. But I'm also excited about the trip which will be a great networking opportunity for me. I've lined up a few meetings already.

I will leave you with a few more pictures of Aaron with his books. I realized the other morning that we probably spend more than an hour each day reading books to Aaron. All on his initiative except the 3 we read at bedtime. He's a little book junkie. In fact, on Thanksgiving, we turned on the parade thinking he might like to watch it, especially since he rarely watches TV. He watched for a minute or so, but then wanted to get back to his books.

Reading with Bear. This is how our mornings are spent - taking turns reading books to Aaron.

Last week when Larissa was babysitting, I found Aaron reclined on her lap with one of his favorite books - Is Your Mama a Llama. Besides the llama, he also likes to point out the sun on each page.