November 1st was a fine day for another play at the Peace Center. The show was Brown Bear Brown Bear and also included The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me.
Afterward, Claire and I stopped by the mall, and, although it was like a summer day outside, inside it was like Christmas.
When we also happened to stop by the mall again the next day, Claire had her first encounter of the season with Santa. She wanted to get a good look at him, so we went right over to the ropes around his sleigh. As there was absolutely no one coming to the mall to see him at that time, he waved her over and invited her to sit down for a chat. I was surprised how willingly she did so. She wasn't too keen on climbing onto his knee, but she was comfortable plopping down beside him. I'm sure she told him she wanted a baby for the bath, a bathtub for the baby, and a kitty cat- a real one.
November 3rd was a great day to play with Tessa, as is just about any other day, particularly Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Tessa isn't in school. We made pumpkin waffles. Tessa wasn't a big fan.
November 6th I found 100 evolving selfies. If was the most entertaining burst of pictures to scan through really fast. I wish I could have made them into a flip book. But instead, here are #1 and #100.
It was also a fine day for a quick fishing trip in the neighborhood pond. Dad caught a fish. The kids posed. Nathanael was disappointed he didn't pull one in.
November 9th I don't know what we did, but she sure was cute.
November 11th was a great day for play dates! After the gym, Tessa and Brynn rode home with us. When these girls get together, it's ALWAYS pajamas for dress up. It's just part of the routine. After school, one of Sam's besties, Charlotte, came over. They played basketball and football and didn't come inside until after dark, when we got pizza. After she went home, we went to Nate's school for family bingo night.
November 12th Paul ran a race with his brother, John, and a couple friends.
November 13th Church. Finally snapped a picture of Claire with her surrogate church family. For weeks she had been leaving us as soon as her primary teacher walked in the door. She loves Sister Barzee (now Sister Tripp, but I don't think Claire will ever call her that) and I love that Alysia loves her back.
November 14th Claire chose Sonic as her special birthday lunch. She had a corn dog, tots, and juice box with a free Barnes and Noble kids club chocolate cupcake for dessert.
November 15th was another baking play date with Tessa. Claire wore her new apron that I gave her for her birthday. She is ABSOLUTELY the cherry on top, just like her apron says!
November 16th was gymnastics with a side of Stella cuddles.
November 21st Sister Barzee made good on a deal she made with Claire. She told Claire and Brynn she would take them to see kitties, but really she ended up doing WAY more! She gave the girls a day straight from their dreams! First stop was Chick Fil A for lunch, followed by the humane society to play with kitties. She could have stopped there and made all their dreams come true, but she didn't. They then went to McDonald's for ice cream. And when they told her they wanted to see her house, she took them home with her. Claire was happy to help bake some cornbread and then weaseled her way into staying for dinner. She would have happily even stayed for a sleepover had she been offered a chance. Dinner was catfish stew, which Claire initially turned her nose up at. But facing the option of going home or eating catfish stew, she took the stew.
November 22nd was an impromptu park birthday party for Brynn. We helped by making some cherry-almond vanilla cupcakes that Kristy put a paw print atop.
November 24th was Thanksgiving, at the Pelham Falls clubhouse, as usual. I tried to propose a change of tradition this year and travel somewhere mountainous instead, but nothing panned out and we ended up with the same old thing. As it turned out, most of the nearby mountains were ablaze with forest fires, so it's probably for the best that we hadn't reserved a vacation house.
November 25th
November 30th a tornado blew through our neighborhood. Literally. The kids all had a gymnastics class at 4:30 in Mauldin. Claire and Nathanael were with Robin, riding there with her. Sam and I were moments away from walking out the door of our house when a tornado warning, advising that we need to seek shelter immediately, blared on my phone. Thinking that it was just cautioning for the event that a tornado MIGHT occur, I called Robin to see what she was doing. She was already en route to gymnastics, so Sam and I hopped in the car. It was probably literally minutes after we left (15 minutes max) that the tornado hit our neighborhood. While we were at gymnastics, in a building constructed on thin sheets of metal that certainly would not have protected ANYONE had the tornado come through there, it was the loudest, scariest store I've probably ever experienced. It was pitch black when we drove home, because it was evening but also because ALL the lights were out on our side of town. What little of the area that was illuminated by my headlights looked like a war zone. Trampolines were strewn across the yards, siding was ripped off houses, garage doors were blown in, fences had been demolished. The streets were littered with debris and chunks were missing from many houses. It wouldn't be until morning that we would see how bad things truly were for many people. We were lucky; we had no real damage to our home, but had enough shingles blown off that we did manage to get a free new roof. We went several days without power, but thanks to Mark, we had a generator with which we were able to power our 2 refrigerators and 1 lamp.
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