Grace in the Small Things: Picture Edition

1. A successful trip up to Mercer provided Eli with some Grandparent and Aunt Monica time.  I was sooooo happy we had good travel weather, good health and lots of good food!! 

2. You know your "Up North" when you see this:

This is the boot line up.  I laughed when I saw it. Andy laughed when I took a picture. These are some heavy duty boots.  These are not fashionable Uggs or moon boots or slip-ons.  These are boots for real men or real "up north" folk to wear when shoveling.  I love that they have them in every size.  We arrived on a clear Friday night. When we woke up at 7 am-it was white outside.  Andy actually needed these boots. Love it!

3. Tonight Eli made himself busy with the pan and lid cupboard.  He took every single pan out and was knee deep!  He kept dropping the lids on the floor or in the pans and it was rather loud. But-he stayed preoccupied so I could make his dinner.  He did crawl in the cupboard and say "door. door. door" until I shut it for him. Then he had some alone time.

4. No picture for this one-but I have been working on "Cheers" with Eli so that at Thanksgiving after the toast-he can participate.  He's got the hang of it.  He says "Du-er" which comes out as "do-ahh" for Cheers. That's the best he can do. And it melts my heart.

5. We met last Saturday for book club and not only did we talk about our last months book-we exchanged cookies. Everyone made a 1/2 dozen cookies for each member.  It was excellent. Here are mine  (and YES I made them all, except Andy put the white chocolate drizzle on!).  We discussed "The Glass Castle" and our next book is titled : Kitchen Confidential. Anyone read that yet? 

6. No picture for this one either-but we live blocks from Candy Cane Lane.  This is a pretty big deal for Milwaukee-lights on every house for blocks to come.  This usually would not excite me, except that it's awesome.  That's all I can really say about that.  No...I can say more.  It's a fundraiser for the Mac Fund and it's HUGE.   It's so close it's within walking distance.  It's fun to see each house try to out-do each other.  Cars literally drive up and down the blocks with their car lights off at a maximum speed of 5 mph.  This year we are excited to share Candy Cane Lane with Grandma Roeder. Hopefully it won't be bitterly cold and we can walk it!

7. Thanksgiving is just days away. I'm working up my appetite as we speak.  It is my favorite holiday of the year. Gobble gobble people!  (Below is the turkey Eli made at Miss Debbie's today. So so so special)