Saturday, December 13

Laid low at home and finished up the stockings, watched movies and the X-Files, and relaxed, preparing for the week to come. But I can't forget to mention that Maren, Aeden, and I went to McD's for hotcakes and Migros for more wrapping paper (ONLY place I've found any for sale!). Maren tried the McD's "hotcake syrup" that we've been stockpiling for when our maple syrup runs out, and we discovered that it is VERY thick, and very sweet and caramel-ly. Ingredients: corn syrup and ethylene glycol (otherwise known as antifreeze...to keep it liquid). Yum! Today was the first day we bothered going upstairs to sit down (we've been sitting in the tented outside area). There are 12 inch jazz figurines as part of the decor running down the center of the seating area...complete with dark skin, giant lips, and all the other African American caricature qualities that you don't see displayed in the US anymore. I'm thinking these figurines will not be added to the "McDonald's in a box" new restaurant kits anyday soon, and I was surprised how bothered I was by them.

Brian helped Lacey get started on another sewing project while Maren was sewing up Aeden's stocking. Lacey's working on a santa hat and was graduated from the whip stitch to a running backstitch. While we're sewing both girls talk about how they want to do all these different projects and sew this and sew that. It is pretty entertaining. Maren wanted me to tell her she was doing better than I did at her age and I told her I didn't know, since I did a lot of projects with my mom and my grandma...and then she just repeated, "But I'm doing better than you did at my age, right?!" No competitive spirit in Maren, no, not at all...