First off, a giant thank you! to Dancer for leaving a comment with a link to Angry Chicken and her moving box puppet theatre. Seriously awesome! I can’t wait to attempt my own version with Pea and Coco. Thanks for the link!

I’m taking Pea to see The Nutcracker in SLC in a few weeks with one of her best friends from school, along with her mother. They are moving to Switzerland for two years. We are sad and will miss them very much. But this will be a celebration of sorts, and so we are going to get dressed up. But seeing as we don’t have many opportunities for fancy dress around here, I was not looking forward to dropping a wad on a one-time-only dress and shoes. But Pea has been begging me for a pouffy holiday dress. And so let me just give a big shout out of “thanks!” to good old Target for pulling through with quite the sophisticated selection. And machine washable, to boot! In fact, we scored so well for Pea that we threw in some dressy duds for little Coco, too. No red velvet, no white faux fur trim. Phew.

And if you’re into knitting, I’m completely obsessed with these two patterns: the first is a to-die-for sweater that you will put on and never, ever want to take off. The second is the most fabulously chic sleeveless-tunic-sweater-type thing. Only way cooler. So cool that there just aren’t really words to adequately describe how fantastically gorgeous this particular piece of clothing is. Both patterns were purchased on Etsy. Both were a steal.

And as we start to prepare to head up to Vancouver, B.C. for some time with my husband, who will be relocating there for six weeks to cover the Olympic games this winter, I took it as a golden opportunity to finally get my girls their passports. Which I know that I do not technically have to do. But I figured, why not? Just get it done. Pretend that Canada requires a U.S. passport for entry for a minor child and just get this tediously tortuous process of passporting the girls crossed off of my To Do List. And of course, it’s a great excuse to find them the most adorable passport covers ever, right? Which would be vinyl. Holds up well. And pink. Pea would have nothing less. And from Etsy. Support handmade, and all. Too adorable.

And Pea had her Thanksgiving feast with her fellow pre-K classmates this week, and we were assigned ’soup.’ I went out on a limb and made curried pumpkin-apple soup, and I can honestly say it was a decent hit with the four-to-five-year old contingent. I ladled each kid’s serving into an individual glass jar (risky? I wasn’t sure, but it turned out fine in the end…) that you’d use for canning preserves to make the commute from our home down the mountain to Pea’s school effortless. It involves many speed bumps and was bound to be a disaster, but worked out well and was actually pretty charming as an overall vessel for serving the soup. I opted to go without spoons and let the kids sip it out of their little jars. And the parents went nuts over what was remaining, always a good sign. And you have to love it when the room mother takes home five servings for her family. Flattery will get you everywhere with me. I think we’re going to add the soup to our Thanksgiving Day menu this week. We’ve never done soup before. Why not?

Which brings me to this last bit of information: hurry on down to your local grocery and buy up some canned pumpkin if you plan on making anything using canned pumpkin for the holidays this year. My husband heard a story on NPR last week that whatever canned pumpkin you see on the shelves at your local grocery? That’s all you’re going to see this season. There’s something wonky with the pumpkin crops or something, and what you see is what you get. I ran out and bought several huge cans of the good stuff as soon as I heard. No way I’m risking a Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie. It would haunt me for the coming year…

Good luck!