family turkey

thanksgiving prep

ive been learning how to knit these days. i think its a wrist-warmer, haha. it was going to be a scarf, but i messed up too much by the time i got to about the 10th knitted row, that i decided to start fresh.

now that the weather is cold (its snowing right now, y'all!) i love to cook. i somehow cant seem to get inspired in the summer when the weather is warm, but something about daylight savings & nippy weather gets me in the kitchen rarin' to go. i just finished my thanksgiving shopping trip, and will start preparing some of the food this afternoon.

we have invited some friends from japan (one of philippe's coworkers, hiroshi, with his wife and their brand new baby, and masako & kana of the homemade japanese lunches fame). i am not doing a turkey this year, ive done that before and its really too much work, and too much leftovers. so i bopped on down to the mayflower freshly killed chicken place and picked up some chicken to put with the cornbread stuffing & also a small amount of turkey giblets for the gravy. but otherwise the menu is fairly traditional. we will have: chicken & cornbread stuffing with giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, baked eggplant tomato & basil parmesan, (the famous) yellow bell pepper soup, a salad, and a store bought pumpkin pie. (hey gimme a break! i'm makin' everything else from scratch) and philippe said he will stop tomorrow & pick up the requisite wine & cheese course.

only thing i am not sure is when i'll listen to alice's restaurant. you can get anything you want... well i want some old friends around, to have a little wine & sing out loud. maybe these new friends will be into it.. but probably not. oh well. but we'll see.

well, it was..

lucas decided he's not quite ready now for the potty. but i'm glad he gave it a go, though.. i trust he'll try again when he's ready to handle all the attendant factors. he's usually successful if he doesnt have to deal with his pants,,, i think he got tired of getting wet at home, and he doesnt have the holding power muscles built up yet. because it is pretty cold already here (48F/6C today), and not the best season to run around nude. maybe he will try it out next summer. i hear it's the best time to train!

ruby news is that she's cruising now, and also just started pushing the walker toys around too. with ruby i am now starting to understand that we as parents dont have a whole lot to do with the way a kid's personality is.. i am merely an observer & a human safety cone. i guess what im sayin is that now that im a parent, i'm becoming a true believer in nature over nurture in the eternal argument.

cool

i was impressed when we got back about how beautiful the fall foliage is.. cambridge is really handsome in autumn, and i've been enjoying the seasonal display. monday i saw the most gorgeous tree of all time, and didnt have my camera with me.. so i will try to go back one morning soon... wish me luck, a tree in its prime autumn colors doesnt last long! i've put a bunch of pictures up recently, and there are plenty pretty trees and leaves to see.

ruby has her third tooth in. oddly, it's one of her upper canines; not the usual top two center teeth that come in normally 3rd & 4th (the bottom center usually come in first, as hers did).. now i have to go google it to see if thats within the range of normal ??? i suspect it is, but i want references!

yesterday, lucas decided to start potty training. i had heard that if you wait long enough, they will tell you when they are ready (he will be 2.5 at the end of this month)... and here we are, i am so proud of him. so here i was wondering why all of a sudden two days ago why he was needing so many hugs and cuddle time - now i know.. it was the step backward for the forward leap.

ps. october pix & video up (including houston)