Thanksgiving Tornado

I would be lying to say my Thanksgiving day was uneventful. Maggie, a friend of mine, faced the gloomy prospect of spending Thanksgiving at home alone with her little girl because her husband had to work that day. Of course, my mother and I never like to see anyone alone for the holidays so we invited Maggie and Grace over.

Grace, aged 2, was very excited to come over. Why? The bunny rabbit. (Every time I'd watch Grace I would tell her about my old rabbit Dumpling.) The moment Grace walked in the door she laid eyes on bunny and did not leave her alone for the rest of the day. Every five minutes Grace asked to feed the rabbit, and Dumpling was a very happy fat bunny. In this picture you can see Dumpling eating treat #1 - celery. Four more treats followed.

Then Grace discovered David's chinchilla. She could not pronounce "chin-chilla" at the time, so the name "chilla" sufficed. The name stuck and we now call Mr. Chin "chilla" (amongst many other names such as "Mr. Diddles," "Dinky," and "Squirrelly Dude") .

Mom and I also pulled out my dusty, old dollhouse from the coat closet for Grace to play with. Tiny furniture, plates, lamps, blankets, trinkets, and headless dolls soon scattered the living room floor. It looked like a gruesome crime scene. I felt the need to pull out my notebook and interview witnesses.

"Ma'am, did you see the perpetrater of this crime? Do you know who murdered this family of dolls?"

(I was the one who beheaded the dolls -- none of my dolls kept their heads. When I was a little girl, almost every one of my dolls had either lost their heads or possessed a very unattractive "hair cut.")

While we adults enjoyed our dinner, Grace sat and watched Monsters Inc. ... at least for a while, but being the busy-body that she is, Grace decided that the rabbit needed some more company.

Then Maggie attempted to put Grace down for a nap in Mom's room. That did not work, as Grace was jumping on the bed and screaming with delight, then running up and down the hall chased by yours truly. (I'm not much help when it comes to nap time.)

I imagine that Maggie and Grace were tired when they left our house that night (I can say without a doubt everyone in our house was tired). It was fun and I would do it again.