It is a windy day today! If not for the wind, I think the sun and relatively mild temperatures (into the upper 30s) would make for a nice day outside. I think this wind will help take off most of the remaining leaves on George, our willow tree.

This week our main activities outside of the house are the three classes at the dance studio and art. I guess it should be a fairly quiet week before Thanksgiving. Last year my parents came for Thanksgiving, but they won't be here this year. This year Myron will be coming, and it sounds as if he'll come the night before and stay until Friday. He hasn't stayed at our house for more than one night for years, probably since before Mary died. That was four years ago on the 10th.

My parents were here Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning, and we had a very nice time. Cory cooked a supper of fettucine alfredo, and then we went to their hotel to swim. We always offer them a room here, but they like to get a hotel with a pool so the kids can have that treat. I didn't go swimming this time but sat at a table with Tylan and my mom while Cory and my dad were in the water. Ella fell asleep almost as soon as we got home, but the rest of us sat together and watched Get Smart.

Yesterday morning Cole and I saw a really neat site on our hackberry tree in front. There were three woodpeckers, and they had such brilliant colors of black and white and red. So we knew they were male because of the red spot on the back of the head, but we didn't get a close enough look at their bills to see whether they were short or long. Maybe we'll see them again to see whether they were hairy or downy woodpeckers.

Now that we're closing in on the holiday season, I've been thinking a lot about how to incorporate more cultural traditions into our celebrations. It's always been hard for me with Christmas because we're always away from home on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as well as a few days before and/or after. So, while we love being with family at their homes during this time, we don't really get a chance to do more things that we might do if we were at home. Our family heritage is mostly German and Norwegian with a few other cultures just barely sprinkled in there. I'm going to do a little research to find some ideas of what we could do. I'd love to hear what all of you do, too!

Speaking of holidays, Thanksgiving is turning into one of my favorites simply because we do stay at home. We still need to do all of our grocery shopping for the meal, though. This year is the local Nutcracker performance, but we won't be able to go. Cory will be delivering pizzas over the weekend, and it's not something that Myron would be interested in seeing. Also, a coworker of Cory's hired him to do some painting at his house. The extra cash will definitely be nice, but all of that will eat up any free time over the weekend.