Top Ten: Thanksgiving Break Week

The bambinos had the whole week of Thanksgiving off from school. Here’s our Top Ten Things We Did List (in chronological order):

1. Weekend get-away to Hope Lake Loge and Indoor Water Park.
2. Oh, yes, call us crazy: we volunteered to host Kyle’s school class pets for the week (two hamsters). Meera absolutely adored them.
3. We watched the premiere of Disney’s Sophia the First. Then watched it about a half dozen more times through the week.
4. Lots of downtime, at home, including lots of time at the art table– and not even just by Meera (K & O too! gasp!! and voluntarily!!!)
5. K & O got to see Meera’s gymnastics class (they are usually in school on Tuesdays when she has gymnastics). She’s been taking gymnastics since September, so it was a big deal for her brothers to get to watch her and cheer her on. Usually it is the other way around (Meera watching and cheering on her brothers’ sports). It was a really, really special time. It was the highlight of my week to see K & O’s pride and joy from watching Meera, and Meera’s pride and joy from having her brothers watch her.
6. A “First Friday” on a Tuesday. It was Meera and Papi’s turn (they went to Cosi for soup and salad, then painted pottery together). At home, K & O & Mommy had take-out and watched The Hunger Games. Not sure who had the best time because it was such good times all around. We love our First Fridays.
7. Thanksgiving! Our Thanksgiving was celebrated with a big visit from Grandpa Robert (from Georgia!), Gamma (from Massachusetts!), and Auntie Sabrina (from Washington, DC!)! They came Wednesday night and stayed until Saturday. Lots of time with them, and they got to see our new home. Highlights — according to the bambinos — were: playing football, watching football, and giving our special guests a walking tour of “our” campus.
8. We bought Thanksgiving dinner from Wegmans. This deserves its own line on this list because it made Mama’s life soooooo much easier! Thank you Wegmans!!! (Photo below of Kyle, who went with me to pick up the Wegmans order on Thanksgiving, and then helped me wheel it into our apartment, complete with basketball on top! love that boy!)
9. Over the course of the week I read to Kyle and Owen the entire first book of Amare’e Stoudemire’s STAT: Standing Tall and Talented series. They loved it (both the book, and getting to stay up much later than Meera for me to read it to them every night). P.S. Coming soon: I am planning a big blog post about some amazing books for black boys that we’ve read over the past several months.
10. We spent the last day of the school vacation week doing one of the things we love most — a day trip to NYC. First stop: the Macy’s Holiday Windows. So awesome. But the real reason we go to NYC: Joe’s Shanghai. Our beloved Chinatown restaurant with the most awe-inspiring soup dumplings on the planet. My mouth is watering just typing this. A trip to Joe’s Shanghai makes everything right. It is our family’s Happy Place (if you type “Joe’s Shanghai” into our search engine on the right side-bar of this blog you’ll see some examples of our times at Joe’s Shanghai… our kids are growing up going to this place). P.S. This time we reached a new level: we devoured a full FIVE steamer baskets of dumplings.

We left NYC, driving home, sipping our hot bubble tea, with a beautiful sunset over the highway. We came home to gear up for this week of back-to-school/work. We are ready for the holiday season. It was a good Thanksgiving Break Week.