Meredith Carson... Across the Pond and Back Again...

Holy Cow!  Did y'all know it was November?!  We all survived the fall rituals of pumpkin selecting, pumpkin carving, pumpkin soup eating, pumpkin costume wearing, trick-or-treating, and the most dramatic rose ceremony yet (also known as last week's presidential election).  October, for us, has been a wonderfully busy blur.  We have all managed to get to our lessons and practices, get to school on time (most days), and still participate in all of the essential seasonal activities.  My writing has suffered, but my kids are happy, and I am pleased to report that I seem to be keeping my usual seasonal depression at bay with the help of some low dose pharmaceuticals.  Can I get a whoop whoop? So... for my friend Sonia across the pond, here is a review of our October in pictures.... We picked a peck of impeccable pumpkins at Grandma's Pumpkin Patch. That kid struggling in the background with the 40 pound pumpkin also belongs to me. ...

Perhaps you can imagine how thrilled my two year old was when Scooby Doo came to her house a couple of weeks ago.  It was so exciting; all of the grown ups were dressed in fabulous costumes.  Shortly before the party started, she asked me to put on her Pablo (from the Backyardigans) costume.  Of course I obliged, fastening all 77 snaps, then realizing I was off by one when I got down to her feet.  I was slightly frustrated by the time we got the costume on properly, but I felt it was important that she was involved in the fun.  Lili looked at herself in the mirror, giggled, and then, in one quick motion, tore open all of the snaps and declared, "Now I want to be a princess!!" "No."  was my simple answer.  I still had to get myself dressed and arrange all of the Scooby Snacks on the table. She settled for a princess night gown.  Still it was all very exciting and, as it turns out, also a little confusing. Everyday since I hostesse...

My life has been a bit stressful and serious lately which is why Halloween came at a very convenient time this year.  It is difficult to feel gloomy when introducing a toddler to her very first jack-o-lantern.  Wouldn't you agree? (The eerie shadow on the left was totally intentional.  I am an excellent photographer.) And even though I am a self-proclaimed hater of crafts, and pumpkin carving is clearly crafty, gathering round the table with my family, each of us wielding sharp knives, made me feel very happy and loved.  With my husband's artistic pattern I was even able to carve this top notch Cookie Monster-o-lantern making my excited toddler even more excited... My nine-year-old impressed us all with her super cool dragon-lantern.  She worked tirelessly (and probably a bit too late into the school night) on this fantastic design.  She is a little bit of a rock star fireball, you know. All of this wonderfulness happened the night befor...

America is seeping into my veins.  It is starting to feel like home again.  I vacillate between excitement over all of the American-ness that is around me and the desire to hold a lot of that American-ness at arms length and ponder it with a bit of skepticism.  While in the UK, I thought I missed all of the cheerful, sparkly American goodies and doo-dahs.  Now that I'm back, I examine said goodies with a very critical eye and ask ridiculously serious questions like: "How many calories/ artificial ingredients/ saturated, partially hydrogenated fats are in this thing?"  "Was this cute-as-can-be dingleberry painted in a horrible third world sweatshop with toxic led paint?"   "Is there anything in this store that was not made in China?"  "Is this packaging recyclable?" or "Is this entire thing going to end up in a landfill when I'm finished with it?" These questions tend to take the fun out of a shopping experience.  Ignorance ...

 This year on Halloween I was healthy and happy unlike last year's Halloween , so a HUGE HOORAY for that!!  I think I have mentioned the fact that I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by the abundance of cheap and poor quality, imported Halloween merchandise in all of the big retail stores in the USA.  As a form of rebellion, all of us girls wore recycled costumes (i.e. costumes from Halloweens past), and Lili borrowed this fabulous little duck costume from our friends the Fitzgeralds.   George enhanced clothes from his own closet with a little bling and assumed the persona of "Big Daddy" for the evening.  I still giggle when I think of him greeting trick-or-treaters at our door with a festive, "Yo yo yo!  What up!?"  As treats were dropped into each waiting vessel, Big Daddy would shout, "BOOO YA!!" So... yes, we did have a Happy Halloween. Hope yours was happy too!  PEACE, Yo.

Pumpkin carving got a little wild tonight.  It all started when George accidentally dropped a little bit of pumpkin goo in Emma's hair.  She was not amused.  The rest of us were a little amused... especially Sophie... so we fixed her... She doesn't actually appear to be too upset, does she?  Sophie is very comfortable being the center of attention even if getting there requires piling vast gobs of pumpkin guts on her head. Sophie wasn't the only girl keeping us in stitches tonight.  A discussion about Halloween gravestones which always seem to read "RIP" led to talk about other modern day acronyms such as LOL and ROFL.  Emma decided aloud that TOL ought to be added to the list.  She immediately followed this assertion with an exceptionally loud burst of flatulence.  Needless to say (although I am saying it anyway), the "T" in her acronym stood for "toot."  What well mannered young ladies we are raising at this house! "Do not take life...