Nov. 30: Month in review

My summary of November 2013 is a teensy bit late (it’s already December), but I’m dating it as though I posted it on time. Or let’s just say it’s November 31st. Yes, let’s.

Special days I celebrated this month and how:

• Jack’s football team had their end-of-season party. The coaches praised each boy for their strengths and contributions to the team, and left all of us parents grateful and kinda teary. I’m not gonna lie; I’m glad football is done, but I also love that Jack had the opportunity to be part of a great group like this one.
• Our boy turned 12 on Nov. 13. He invited a couple friends to a Blazer game, and the next weekend he had them over again for a sleepover party. In anticipation of that night (better known as FartFest2013), Katie and I made our escape to a hotel in Portland. Fun was had by all.

• Victor and I went up to Long Beach, Washington for a belated birthday vacation from Mother Mary. We stayed at Adrift Hotel, an odd little place just steps away from the beach. Lucy had never stayed in a hotel before, and was really agitated at first—pacing and looking for the other rooms and more people. Then she realized that she’d get several walks each day for potty breaks, and she decided she loooooves hotels. It was a nice little break for all of us. Long Beach is way underrated.
• Thanksgiving! This year we spent our favorite holiday with friends. We had a delicious dinner, followed by an epic poker game. There was also an assortment of Christmas movies, music, hide-and-seek games, and these pear-rosemary cocktails. ‘Twas a lovely day.
• Dear friends Ed and Sheila celebrated birthdays this month. I didn’t celebrate with them, though because neither of them invited me to their parties. Never mind they were in Oklahoma and a Dakota at the time. Happy birthday anyway!

I was in the audience:

• Mom, Dina, and I went to an advance showing of The Book Thief. I loved the book and wasn’t thrilled when I heard it was being made into a movie, but we all thought it was really well done. The cast was amazing—every single character was impressive. I highly recommend it—the book and the movie.
• We upgraded our Christmas movie collection with this purchase. I’m embarrassed—just slightly—to say we watched all four movies in one evening. At this rate, I’ll be Christmas-ed out long before Dec. 25. That ain’t good.

Books and things:

• I started reading Amy Tan’s newest book, The Valley of Amazement. I’m planning to go to her reading at Powell’s on Wednesday.
• My stack of “to be read” books is getting precariously high. I could get through it if I could stay awake for five minutes. Lately reading makes me sleepy. Pffft.

This month’s disappointments:

• Our kitty was sick. At first her teeny-tiny sneezes were really cute, but then she started doing it on my face and that was enough of that. Poor Millie. Getting her to and from the vet was insanely difficult for me and stressful for her. Thankfully, after a round of antibiotics, she’s all better.
• Although Victor had most of the week off, he had to work the day after Thanksgiving. He always does, and I hate it. What’s worse, though, is this year he has to work on Christmas Day. Actually, maybe this whole Christmas-ed out thing will work out well for me. I can spend Christmas Day undecorating the house.

newsy bits from in and around our family:

• These are the people with whom I closed out November 2013—Tina, Theresa, and Val. Lucky me!

• So, I attempted another blog challenge in November and failed in a very successful way. I’m trying something similar in December and predict I’ll do about as well.
• Mother Mary has now joined the rest of us in the 21st century: she finally upgraded from a 1990s-era flip phone to an iPhone. If you get a text from her, you’ll have to add your own punctuation, though. She hasn’t figured that part out yet. Baby steps.

I likes to share the silly stuff:

 

Happy December, friends! Smell ya later.