Our Fabulous trip to Rome Nov 8-13

Thanksgiving and the ill-fated roll story

Thanksgiving was interesting this year. Very different. We had Thanksgiving Dinner at church with a whole lot of people from the ward. I guess, there are plenty of people here that don't have family nearby to eat Thanksgiving dinner with. I made rolls from scratch for the first time in my life (which just didn't quite make it cooked to the Dinner). I also made pecan pie and jello-salad.

The ill-fated roll story:

The dough rose just like it was supposed to. I rolled a bunch of little balls and positioned them in the pan. Great so far. They rise to double just like they're supposed to. They are about to go in the oven. I move the roll pan from the top of the oven to the chair so I can take the pecan pie out of the oven. Joey proceeds to get up on the chair to see the pecan pie ...... and squashes the rolls. I take the foil off the rolls and see the pattern of Joey's corduroy jeans in the squashed dough, which looks nothing like little balls anymore.

I knead the dough, reform it into little balls, knowing I can't wait for them to cook because if we do, we'll be later than we already are. Joseph puts the completed pan in the box to take, when Mandy puts her hand in the dough ...and squashes them ...again. We take the squashed, uncooked rolls to church, hoping we can somehow salvage and cook them there.

We get to the church and there is an oven that is already hot. I am hopeful we can actually have hot home-made rolls for dinner--that perhaps it worked out better this way. But the pan is too big for the British oven. And the rolls go into the fridge till the end of the night, taken home, and cooked the next day. The Whites and McDermotts enjoy the entire batch of rolls the day after Thanksgiving despite the mishaps of the previous night. To quote Joseph, "The rolls are not pretty, but they are sincere."

The Pecan Pie:
The Pecan pie makes it to the church with a little more flour in the filling than there ought to be in it (in case you didn't catch that . . . more flour than there ought to be in it . . . ) Flour is generally not an ingredient in pecan-pie filling. Mandy was enjoying helping and was absolutely crushed when Mommy took a fit about her ruined pie. Luckily you couldn't see the flour in it till the next day when we had left-overs and the pie went cloudy.

The Jello Salad:
It set up this year, thankfully. Something I made turned out fine.

The Kitchen:
No, I didn't bring the kitchen for Thanksgiving dinner, but it was a complete disaster when we got home and Joseph joked that next year I'm not allowed to make pecan pie, and especially no rolls. (He didn't say anything about the jello-salad) and shhhh, hopefully he will forget by next year.

Everyday Life

Emily is in first grade, learning to read and write. It is much more work than Kindergarten and she spends time every weekday with at least 30 minutes of homework. Her teacher's program is very structured and Emily knows exactly what is expected of her. She is one of the best students in her class for getting work done on time. She enjoys school and is eager to learn new things. She hasn't lost her creative spark. Her original sentences for homework make her teacher smile when she writes, "Are you sure you have a horse who can play the violin?" "Yes, look in the tree!" And then you see her drawing of a horse playing a violin in a tree.

Joey goes to British preschool two days a week when we are not traveling or when he isn't sick. He's missed quite a few days since he started in August. He likes school because it makes him feel like a big kid. On days he isn't going to school he hangs out with his cousin, McKinzie White, next door. We can't seem to keep them away from each other. Either Joey is there or McKinzie is here most days of the week. The two of them are little rascals together.

Mandy is two. It says a lot. She is really into doing things her own way and insists on it. Her famous line is, "No Mommy, I do it." She says it from everything to buckling her car-seat to picking out her movie. She is generally sweet, however, despite her two-ness.

Joseph is enjoying more time since residency ended. He has fun on the computer many evenings and some weekends when we have nothing else planned. He loves taking pictures and rarely leaves the house without the camera, even if it's just to church (he often takes the kids somewhere while he's waiting for choir to get over). In his free time, when he's not taking pictures, he's uploading them to the computer or the internet. November's total pictures were about 400 or so. He has all his favorites uploaded to Picasa. He's also been getting up early some mornings to practice the piano. He plays for Primary and has been busy learning songs for the upcoming program. The Primary President complimented him last week on his playing, saying she could tell that his practice has been paying off.

Jenny just feels busy. She loves her new calling of Primary Chorister. With the upcoming Primary Program, she has been scrambling to get the kids ready and work out the small details, like solos, ensembles, etc. On top of primary, she has been Christmas shopping (online) and working on the house. She finally got the last box unpacked last week. There is still much to do to get the house in order, as she tries to manage the lack of storage space in her new house. Every time she does a load of laundry, though, she is thankful for an American size washer and dryer (the European size is very small, like 4-5 pairs of jeans, or one coat). She enjoys going to choir after church, which is 35 minutes from our home, so Joseph graciously takes the kids for a drive and then comes back to pick her up. He definitely goes the extra mile for me, which I appreciate very much.