That's Using the Old Noodle

Three cheers for Granddad's turkey noodle soup! Thanksgiving is over but the turkey noodle soup lives on, and on and on because he makes it so thick, all you have to do is add more water and it magically fills the pan again. He deserves a cheer not just because he's one of the best soup-makers on the planet, but because Brigid has discovered how much she loves real-people food. At dinner last night, I cooled some carrots and beans from the soup for her and put them on her high-chair tray, which she managed to get into her mouth through her pudgy fisted grabs. Then I decided to try some of the noodles, which were the big, fat cork-screw pasta. She loved them and ate and ate and ate. When I tried to spoon some Gerber sweet potatoes in, she ate them but not with the gusto she directed at the soup fare. We've turned another page in the chapter of Brigid's life. Of course, not long after dinner, she turned her attention to the boob for the remainder of the evening. Mom's Country Cookin' can still trump Granddad's Special Soup.

We had a girls' day of shopping on Sunday, having successfully avoided Black Friday like the Black Plague. I took the girls to Burlington and we had a fund day of it. We actually got a little real shopping done, which surprised me. They learned the joy of being able to cross a name off the list. And Brigid held up very well, enjoying some of the Christmas lights and decorations of Church Street. It certainly put me in the Christmas mood, although I'm of the old guard when it comes to deocrating at home. The girls and Jack are all clammoring to put the tree up. I say it's to early. We never put the tree up until the week before Christmas. And it stayed up until Epiphany. Maybe it's because that's when we were getting out of school, but it never went up so early. There are homes in our neighborhood where trees have been up since before Thanksgiving. That's going too far! So, as a compromise, I might say the tree can go up the second weekend in December. We'll see. In the meantime, I'm humming Christmas music and making lists and considering cookie-decorating parties and it's not even December yet. Let the holidays begin.