Thanksgiving Weekend

THANKYOU for family and friends and (pretty) good health. And America.

Lovely long weekend. Thanksgiving began with a neighbourhood football game up in Montrose Park that, thanks to a very organised fellow mum, came complete with a table loaded with boxes of coffee, mimosas on tap, and Krispy Kreme doughtnuts.... mmmmm....

Then Kim invited us round to Thanksgiving Lunch... more mmmm....

On Friday, we took Tom to see The Nutcracker at the Kennedy Centre. With some trepidation in case of a two hour fidget. But it was a smashing production, with a great little orchestra, and he was rapt through much of it.

On Saturday, we went to a very funky kitchen shop at Eastern Market (thankyou Helen and Tim), had lunch at a Belgian Caff, and then I drove off to play cello with Greg.

And today, the sky was bright bright blue and we celebrated by walking the Billy Goat Trail at Great Falls, then finished off a Most Excellent Weekend by going for drinks (and in Tom's case, a session of mad tear-about playing with a bunch of boys) at the new house of my friend Christina Lamb, who's just become the Washington bureau chief of the Sunday Times.

I know tomorrow will be heavy - Afghanistan and Health care and lots and lots of admin - but for the last hour before sleep, we can relax and leaf through the rest of the papers. Ah, our last Thanksgiving...

Night all.

Dum de dum dum, dum dum...

 Oh it is nice being 27...

Apparently. Anyway it has been a SMASHING morning which began with a hugely excited Tom and a slightly bleary Philippa bringing me birthday cakes with a candle, and cards and presents from all you lovely lot. I arrived home from work a little earlier than expected last night to find Philippa ushering me out of the kitchen as a lovely smell of baking filled the air. T got busy with the icing tubes this morning and the result is what you see here.
What a great stack of cards too! I have to say that the funniest was from Bill and Fredda, who said they had dug deep in their pockets to find me something for my birthday. I opened the card to find that inside it was sellotaped...a ball of lint. Well really. Actually, having spent some time at Bill and Fredda's house I know they must have had to go to a specialist shop to find a ball of lint!
Helen (being Helen) came up with a beautifully put together email-card which involves a magical mystery tour of Eastern Market and a surprise at the end. It was all explained in a pdf file she had put together herself. Honestly its all I can do to  OPEN pdf files, let alone create them! That's my sister... Philippa and I are both off tomorrow and hoping to embark on the expedition then.
There are some terrific books which Philippa and I are already fighting over (thank you M and D) and Philippa gave me some inspired bits and pieces which I shall post on another blog...another blog? Yes. I have just started one about something specific, which I shall give you a link to later. For now though, thank you all so much! I am having a happy birthday.

The Jedi Sword Fight

Possibly the funkiest after school class Tom will ever have... the final showdown was tonight at Glen Echo..oh do I have to spend the next six months being nostalgic for "last" experiences in Washington?

End of the season

Tonight Tom's last soccer game (I'm still not sure he ever knows which is his goal....) and Wednesday is his last Light Sabre class (now he DOES know how to be a Jedi Apprentice!). Washington dipped briefly out of winter to give us bright sunshine this afternoon; we enjoyed the very last rays on the pitch.