When I look back on November, I am happy I took photos of the special things we did as well as the ordinary things that make everyday life meaningful for us.
At the beginning of the month, we went to a wind symphony concert where Sophia attends college and heard her play the harp in a piece. This is the second week in a row that we went to a concert there. I'm happy she chose a nearby college so we can enjoy seeing her perform.
My sister and I spent a day together doing holiday activities. She wanted to see a new boutique hotel that had tours, so we went in the afternoon. Interestingly, it used to be a convent and about 100 nuns lived there. It was later turned into office space, and one of the offices was for the Minnesota Composers Forum, where I used to work.
The Celeste is now a hotel and the renovation and preservation efforts are beautiful. Below is a picture of the bridal suite with 18 foot high ceilings and a chandelier over the bed. This was part of the original altar in the convent.
The ceiling in the bridal suite also has a stained glass window that can be back-lit.
Throughout the month, there have been some spectacular sunsets.
It was a month to be grateful, and one things I am grateful for are the pets we have. This is Meenie. She's about 17 years old now.
The weather started getting colder. We don't have firewood yet for the winter, so we are using a little electric heater that looks like a woodstove. Danny and Scooby like the warm air that blows out of it.
I received sad news this month that one of my uncles died. He was the husband of my Aunt Marilyn, my dad's sister (pictured as a child in the photo below). My dad is on the right, with arm protectively around his little sister.
My cousin, James, texted me the photo. We had a good conversation and caught up as he shared the news about the death of his dad and declining health (and memory) of his mom.
Olivia and I went to a nursery to get some outdoor decorations for winter. There was a cute little sleigh with a fake reindeer in one of the greenhouses.
I decorated the windows with window stars that I had made in previous years and kept. I was able to decorate five windows with a variety of gold, orange, and brown stars.
On the 17th, we celebrated Olivia's 16th adoption day. We tried a new restaurant in Dinkytown (the University of Minnesota campus). It was really good and we enjoyed each dish that we tried.
There was another beautiful sunset.
On the 26th, I took Sophia out for bubble tea and a poke bowl in another part of Dinkytown. Because of her schedule and Olivia's homeschool co-op, we didn't go out for dinner as a family that night.
Sophia came home from the afternoon of Tuesday, November 26th through Sunday, December 1st. It was nice to have her home again for a longer stretch of time than just a weekend. Danny was so happy to see her.
Olivia made caramel rolls - a recipe that my dad used to make growing up. We realized that we could have added a lot more rolls (he and we use Rhodes dough to make the rolls).
We celebrated Thanksgiving on the 28th. There were 11 family members at the dinner.
Cooper looked out the window on Thanksgiving. We chose not to fill the birdfeeder otherwise he would have barked all afternoon at the squirrels wanting to eat at the feeder.
Three of the four dogs hung out with the cousins on the family room floor.
I like this picture of Aspen and how alert she was as Eenie sat next to her. He is Meenie's twin (pictured above), so also around 17 years old.
On the day after Thanksgiving, we packed food with other Lions and family members at Feed My Starving Children. This is the second year that I have coordinated this packing event, and was pleasantly surprised and happy that 36 people wanted to pack food!
1 comment:
As usual--such fun to read about your month. Those sunsets are stunning! Love all your paper delights hanging in the window. Sorry about your uncle, though. Glad you had some good memories with your cousin. Cute picture of when they were little. Have a great week!! :)
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