turkeys and cheese

Just came home from the cottage. Jeff and I seem to have picked up a bug during the weekend (three others up there had colds, so I'm not surprised :)). Did a LOT of eating this past weekend, mainly because one of the guests was the chef from my mom-in-law's restaurant. Rick makes the best pizzas in the world, and he can make them out of pretty much anything (one of his pizzas this weekend was from bacon, tomatoes, and leftover Caesar salad....yum).

Had fun playing with my niece Brittany; we did a lot of drawing together. I also gave her a penny whistle of her own...her mom thanked me through gritted teeth as Brittany immediately began producing repeated ear-splitting shrieks by blowing hard through the instrument. Ha ha, I love being an aunt. :-)

One of our games was the Haircutting Game. I drew a bunch of little girls and boys with long hair (created by long scissor cuts through the paper so that jumbled "hair" sprouted from each smiling face), and Brittany gave them haircuts with some safety scissors. Then she mis-aimed and accidentally cut off one of their heads, causing much hilarity on her part (ok, I confessed I laughed too)...and the game devolved into a rather gruesome version of the original. Unfortunately Brittany's mom walked in during one especially enthusiastic decapitation. I made a half-hearted attempt at explaining that the game had originally been a tame haircutting activity, but it was difficult being heard over Brittany's excited "OFF HEAD! OFF HEAD!"

On Saturday, we all went down to the north shore for the annual Cottagers' Turkey Bowl, a touch football game where the teams consisted of the cottagers from the north end battling it out with those from the south end. This year, some of our star players were put out of the running early on...Simon dislocated one his fingers catching a football, and his friend Gord had to drive him to the hospital. Another fellow, Tim, hurt his ankle partway through the game and had to stop playing. Final score: 4-3 for the other side. Jeff and Rick made some good plays, but were very sore the next morning.

On the way home from the cottage, Jeff and I were listening to a CBC panel on kids' books, and they reviewed BYE BYE PIE! (by Sharon Jennings, illustrated by my sister). They even complimented the end papers, which are covered in Sara's and Annie's handprints (Annie didn't know how to separate all her fingers, so the middle fingers are stuck together).

Speaking of my sister...Ruth gave a report from her family's Thanksgiving back in Toronto...apparently they went around the table at dinnertime, each family member telling the others about something he or she was thankful for. Sara said she was thankful for shelter and her sister. Annie said she was thankful for cheese.