Thankful

There is so much for us to be thankful for and this thanksgiving.  The kids had the entire week off from school.  John and I had to work on Monday, but were otherwise free to play. We were fortunate to have both friends and family visit during the week of Thanksgiving.

Deb was one of my favorite friends when I was in graduate school in Missoula. She and Gray moved to Missoula together (sweethearts from college) and got married the year after I left.  We haven't been in great touch, but Deb got in touch because their family wanted to come scout out Vermont as a potential place to move.  It turns out, they have children almost the exact same ages as ours and in their short visit, they became fast friends. 

Within hours of the Davidson crew rolling out of town, Grandma and Bumpa drove into town.  They came armed and ready for lots of action (and just in time before a big snow storm came through).

Super Grandma read books, built a ginger bread house, painted toe nails and even took the kids on a hike (with Bumpa), giving John and me some time to catch up on grading and painting windows.

The grandparents even took care of the kids so John and I could get out for a rare lovely morning skin and ski date on Sterling Mountain on Thanksgiving morning.  Sadly, 100 yards from the top of the mountain, John's ski's got caught in some heavy now and pitched him forward. He fell on his shoulder and immediately knew he had broken his clavicle.  The mountain was not open, so there was no ski patrol to call.  He asked me to hold his sunglasses and said he'd be fine skiing himself down.  He grit his teeth and made it down flawlessly, but upon trying to cross a water bar he fell again.

A quick trip to the hospital with Bumpa later, the evidence was clear:

Fortunately, Grandma was able to "pinch hit" with preparing the big meal while John and Bumpa were at the hospital.  But, even a broken clavicle can't keep a good man down.

 

John did manage to get out of feast prep and clean up, but he refused to miss a day of sledding the following day:

And because we are crazy, we even braved Church Street in Burlington on Black Friday to see the lighting of the Christmas tree and a very funny performance of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  It was cold and crowded, but this little reindeer was in heaven!

While the snow didn't really stick around.  It stayed long enough for the kids to make their first snowman on their own.  He had a scallion for a nose and a pig hat, but we are so thankful to have them working together, laughing and loving each other.

We are also thankful for a great surgeon who squeezed John into his schedule less than a week after the accident to repair his broken collar bone.  Now John is on the road to recovery with seven screws and a plate.  Onward and upward. The sweet nurses hear that we have two kids, so they sent us home with all sorts of doctor "stuff" so the kids could play surgeon.

And finally, we are thankful for a new heating system downstairs.  Good bye forced hot air, particulates floating around our house and cold mornings.  Hello hot water radiators on a timer that forced us to get rid of a little clutter.