Thanksgiving Covid-style

We are no strangers to a small, low key Thanksgiving.  We've been lucky enough to have a few "Friendsgivings" and a few with special visitors.  We've even had a couple out of town Thanksgivings.

Tom is great at making a scaled down feast and with just three meat eaters at the table, a duck is the perfect size.    

Kids and Mousse enjoyed some parade watching in the morning.  

 My mom came over for dinner but I didn't take any pictures of people, just food. 

Here's the finished duck. 

I made a pumpkin cake with maple buttercream frosting and a pecan pie cheesecake.  I put some whipped cream on it to try to cover some cracks.  

The cheesecake layer came out pretty perfect. The pecan and cookie crust were both a little too hard.  

Tahoe Trip

Thursday night after celebrating Tom's birthday with pizza and cake, we piled into the car and headed to Tahoe for a quick get-away.  It was nice the have a change of scenery and the kids were excited to log into distance learning from a different location.  The ski resorts weren't open yet (which is why our friends were not using their house themselves) but we managed to find some fun.  

It was Mousse's first experience with snow and he loved it.  

Handsome boy on our Friday morning walk.  It was pretty darn cold all weekend.  

Friday after school we went out to a hiking trail and let Mousse run around like a crazy.  It was so fun to watch.  

On Saturday we went to the same ropes course/zip line we've been to before.  In the past, we've done it in the summer but it was fun this time too.  It was just chilly.  

We went down to see the big lake afterward. 

On Sunday before come home, we went to the hiking trail one more time. 

From the hike, you can look across the mountain and see ski lifts and runs.  Here's Serafina and Tom trying to figure out what was what. 

Snow snack. 

One more picture of my handsome boy in the snow. 

 

Happy birthday, Tom!

Tom had a kind of lackluster birthday because he had to work all day.  But we did get pizza for dinner (one of his favorite foods) and I made him a special birthday cake.  It's a flourless chocolate cake with a whipped chocolate mousse topping.  It was extremely rich and delicious.  Serafina did the raspberry placement.  

Mousse was worried about the noise Leo was making while "singing" happy birthday. 

 

End of the (pool) Era

Late in the summer, we noticed we had to keep refilling the pool more than normal. It was clear there was a leak.  After lots of discussion (and some tears shed by me), we decided not to fix the pool.  Instead we will fill it in and create a dog-friendly outdoor space with seating for eating and for chilling out.  The process of tearing up the backyard will be unpleasant to say the least, but we are looking forward to the end result.  We had so many fun times in the pool and so many great memories of parties with friends.  But it's time to enter a new chapter.  

Here's when the pool was partial drained back in early October and Serafina was willing to get in.  

Almost completely empty. 

 This is this morning.  Just a little sludge at the bottom we didn't bother to drain.  

Bye beautiful pool.  You served us well.  

Happy (covid) Halloween

We love Halloween around here.  And even though this was was definitely different, we tried our best to make it a fun one anyway.  
 

Leo decided he wanted to be Slash from Guns and Roses.  He had the hat leftover from his steampunk costume and the glasses were in our Halloween box.  He borrowed my leather jacket and then we added a wig.  He looked great.  He dressed up for school on Wednesday for their special virtual assembly.  

Attending school in costume.  

Serafina decided to skip an elaborate homemade costume this year for the comfort of a onesie.  She looked super cute. 

Here she is at school in costume.  

Today they put back on their costumes for a special Halloween Hunt.  

Serafina added makeup for this event. 

Covid safe.  

At the beginning of the month, I went outside my comfort zone and emailed about 30 people inviting them to participate in a daytime Halloween "Hunt".  The premise was simple.  Participating houses would put on treats between 3pm - 5pm in a way that kids only had to touch the treat they were picking and anyone on the hunt would agree to practice social distancing.  I opted for a daytime event so everyone could easily see each other to stay six feet apart.  I had tons of people sign up and the email was passed to people that weren't on my original list.  I created a map of all the houses and sent it out.  We had 30 houses on the hunt spread around the neighborhood and 75 kids participating.  

Here's my treat table complete with hand sanitizer.  

Fred was ready to greet the kids. 

Serafina walked the Hunt route with her friend Alissa.  

In the evening, we decorated our dining room table and lit candles for a festive dinner. Then we settled in for a Halloween movie.  Traditional trick-or-treating isn't safe enough so I'm glad we did the hunt and stayed in tonight.  It was a low-key Halloween, but it was fun and just what we needed to feel in the spirit.  I got several emails and texts thanking me for organizing.  I'm just glad so many kids still got to have Halloween even with the world falling to crap around us. 

Pumpkin Carving

We carved some pumpkins today.  

Nana and Mousse supervised. 

Mousse snacked on some pumpkin guts

Glowing nicely.