On Kate's birthday we had the big Harry Potter Party.
Kate went all out decorating "Hogworths."
The tables in the Great Hall groaned beneath the weight of the magnificent feast.
Kate and Liz the Beloved had lovingly crafted wands for all the children which they chose out of this box. Or should I say, the wands chose which children to go to?
And since everyone was dressed up, there were pictures. Many pictures. I am Professor McGonagall, Vivs is Hannah Abbott, Rafe is Ron Weasley, Annie is Katie Bell, Merrick is Cedric Diggory.
Kate-Professor Trelawney
Justin-Sirius Black
Rose-Hermione Granger
Jade-Luna Lovegood
The Tylers were Belatrix Lestrange and Severus Snape, little James was Harry Potter. I can't remember who Addie was.
The Cooks were the Weasleys and Crookshanks.
Sheffields were the Malfoys, accompanied by Dobby.
Isaac was Dumbledore, Lettie was Winky, Viera was Pansy Parkinson, Jasmine was Hedwig, and Melanie...
...was a Patronus!
That makeup needs a closeup.
Colette was Tonks. I think she should always have pink hair.
These two beautiful people, getting ready for a photo.
It was so much fun!
That night we slept at the Alworths so I could go watch Drew run his marathon early in the morning.
Rafe watched some sports with his uncles. They were very patient with his incessant questions.
In November we had a big family Talent Show. Drew organized it. My hero! He asked everyone to contribute an act, then he organized the program.
It took place in several different rooms. He started us out in the music room with the longest things--me and Colette playing Passacaglia and me and Haley playing Deep Purple.
Vivien, Annie, and Aunt Mel did dances, for which we moved to the family room so they had the floor. Vivien choreographed her own dance to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and Annie demonstrated her skills to Prokofiev's Young Juliet. I filmed Melanie's practice a few days before the event. It makes me cry, it's so beautiful.
Sarah and her girls sent in videos of their entries (Sarah singing Ultraluminary, the girls sang and did some of their gymnastics skills) and we Zoomed them in (with Mom and Dad) so they could watch everyone watch them. Drew played his drumset...
...Isaac sang some Dear Evan Hansen...
...and Jacob did a fun pancake art/coding presentation that I don't have a picture of but was definitely a high point of the day. Jade made a cake...
...Rafe did some drop kicks with a soccer ball outside, Rose played her violin, and Justin and a hoarse Kate did an Adele song together. Justin's been learning to play using an app for the last couple years and he's awesome!
The day after the Talent Show it was Brunsdale Thanksgiving. We decided to have it early, so as not to conflict with all the other Thanksgiving dinners happening on Thursday. We set up all the tables and experimented with different arrangements. I think it's fun to have a big square table so you can see everybody, but we expanded our square to fit some littles in the middle.
Everyone chipped it to bring all the nummiest treats you can imagine.
I made the sweet potatoes McKenzie introduced me to several years ago. Justin caught my attention during dinner and said, "You. This. Every year."
They were all good sports and sat through the Thanksgiving Program. And sang Turkeyland!
And then we had pie. Pie, pie, pie.
Baby Dean did not have pie. But he's as sweet as pie.
By the middle of the next week I had developed a bit of a cold. It hit me at work on Tuesday while I was standing in the procedure room--a wave of fatigue. I figured it was the same thing Kate had during the talent show because the timeline made sense and we were both hoarse in the same way, and she'd already had COVID several months before so I didn't think about going to get tested. Devon and Danielle came into town from Arizona for Thanksgiving and as I sat on the couch talking to them Wednesday evening the congestion descended with a vengeance. Then we stayed up very late doing a puzzle. Look at all the close contact. I was pretty disgusting.
Jacob Mickelson had come to puzzle, giving me heat for keeping puzzles in plastic bags without pictures of the finished product. I was very surprised we finished it, but they all seemed determined to get all those oceanic rouges (ridges) in!
By Thursday I wasn't sure if I ought to even go to Thanksgiving dinner, thinking I'd just send the food I had made over with Drew and the kids.
But I do hate to miss out, so I just wore a mask diligently and secreted myself in a back bedroom to rest during the set-up and clean-up times when everyone was visiting. I felt like my heart was working hard--my pulse would be pounding in my neck any time I needed to move.
On Friday we had a Bibimbap dinner with the Johnsons with anyone who could come. Devon made a divine sauce with the gochujang paste. They have bibimbap often at home.
Then we had an excellent Sing. I was pretty sad to have no voice, but getting to hear Devon sing made up for everything. His "Race You to the Top of the Morning" had us all teary.
Colette was sick by that weekend too (see above close contact with me during puzzling), so she got a COVID test to prove her symptoms were not COVID so she could return to school. Monday night she called me with her results--POSITIVE! We were shocked. She came home to quarantine in her bedroom. We were pretty strict about keeping her sequestered because we didn't want the kids to get it and have to miss school (luckily they had gotten their first round of vaccines the week before). I had gone to work that Monday, so I called my boss and told him what was going on and went and got myself tested even though it had been 8 days since my symptoms started. My rapid was negative but the PCR came back positive, too. COVID buddies!
We spent quite a bit of time in Colette's room over the break.
In hindsight it was pretty obvious we both had it the whole time, but I'm still not sure where we picked it up. Oh well.
That's all for fall holidays. On to winter!
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