The last two years just flew by, and today, Turkey and Bunny received their Associate’s degrees…Turkey an Associate in Science, and Bunny an Associate in Arts!
I enjoyed getting a look at the class banner while we were there:
It was a very nice ceremony…in addition to being on the Dean’s List all four semesters (they received a special blue tassel for that) and members of Phi Theta Kappa (the gold tassel, cord, and stole), not to mention Turkey’s Outstanding Math Student award for the 2022-23 school year, they were recognized for having a perfect 4.0 GPA, something less than 10% of the graduates accomplished. They have kept pace with each other from the very beginning!
We are all so proud!
Two weeks from today, I’ll be celebrating with the two of the them at Disneyland!
I always feel a little nostalgic in the days between the March birthdays of my oldest and youngest children. This year I can’t help but appreciate these brief few days where they are “20” and “10.” It reminds me of a day over a decade ago when Turkey realized he was nine years and nine months old at the same time Chickadee was just nine months, and in remembering that, I had to get a picture of the two of them again, much older, but still oldest and youngest:
As hard as it is to believe, Turkey turned 20 years old today. There’s something significant about those ending-in-zero birthdays, and this was no exception!
As has become tradition, I made a Thanksgiving-style birthday dinner. I’m not going to lie…this was one of the worst turkeys I’ve ever prepared. The rest of the meal was good, though, and I think Turkey enjoyed it!
I made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for dessert. It was possibly the best cheesecake I’ve ever made, and also one of the prettiest! Conveniently, candles come in packs of 20, too!
I always have a fun time celebrating my children…I’m so blessed to have a considerate, kind, funny, intelligent son!
Time for a look back at our family’s Thanksgiving celebration, a three-day affair that always begins with Pie Day (Wednesday), and continues on through Black Friday.
On Thanksgiving morning, we watched the Macy’s Parade (which just wasn’t the same without Al Roker), and in between dinner preparations, I played a bit of Animal Crossing:
While we watched the Dog Show (we were thrilled that the adorable French Bulldog, Winston, won!), I got to work setting the table:
Instead of using a mix of stemmed glasses, this year, I set the table with our “regular” drinking glasses, which I purchased over the summer. They look pretty fancy, even though we use them everyday!
Dinner was ready earlier than I was expecting (I’m glad I checked the turkey when I did, because the pop-up timer, which I never use, had already popped), and I scrambled to get it all together. Our meal was fairly standard, with turkey and everyone’s favorite stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, carrots and parsnips, green beans with almonds, Brussels sprouts, and rolls, plus one new dish, made with wild rice and mushrooms, that I really liked!
I think it was a pretty amazing feast!
For dessert, we had our standard seven pies, most of which were our usual picks, but I did make one new recipe for a cranberry curd tart with a shortbread crust:
I chose the two main Thanksgiving flavors, pumpkin and cranberry, for my dessert plate:
The next morning, we started the day with pie-for-breakfast…this time, I chose Nutella:
Then we went to see Moose march with his band in the town Santa parade:
Nothing beats a turkey sandwich on Rye bread for the after-Thanksgiving lunch!
I also tried the pecan pie…I updated my recipe, and I just had to see for myself how it turned out (really, really well, if you’re interested!):
This year’s Lego Winter Village set is an adorable Main Street complete with a streetcar:
For dinner, I made turkey soup (of course):
And then Moose, Chickadee, and I went downtown for the tree lighting:
As of last week, Turkey and Bunny have finished their first year of college! I’m not directly involved in their education anymore, but as their former teacher, I of course have to take a look back at how they did academically. They both had straight As both semesters, which also means they both made the Dean’s List. They each had at least one professor they really liked, and with whom they were able to take a class both semesters, and I’m super grateful for that, because I think those kinds of connections are really important. They were also both asked to join the honor society Phi Theta Kappa, which is fantastic, because that can open doors to scholarships when they transfer to their chosen four-year colleges after graduation next spring.
All that to say, I’m really, really proud of them, and I also guess it’s safe to say that I didn’t totally screw up their education in the 13 years they were students in my little homeschool!
This year, to celebrate his 19th birthday, Turkey had a two-day birthday celebration! We started with a low-key observance on his actual birthday, with cinnamon rolls and Brazilian lemonade for breakfast, and one of his favorites, Stromboli, for dinner:
Today was his birthday (observed)…just like the Queen! I think I was almost as excited about him opening his presents as he was!
For dinner, we had Thanksgiving in March. This was the most normal birthday dinner we’ve had since 2019…we had three additional guests at our table, and that was amazing!
He requested a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting…and then I threw in some lemon curd as a filling. It was pretty delicious!
Even though he had to wait a day for his full birthday celebration, I think having two birthdays is pretty fun!
Time for a look at our annual three-day-long Thanksgiving celebration, beginning with a beautiful sunrise on Wednesday morning, which gave me encouragement to bake nine pies, prep two different kinds of stuffing, and make the cranberry sauce.
On Thanksgiving Day, we had fun watching the Macy’s Parade and playing Thanksgiving Day Parade Bingo, picking our favorite dogs at the National Dog Show, and playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Of course, there was dinner to attend to, as well. I thought the table looked extra pretty this year…maybe that’s because we had guests to set it for!
The menu was a mix of old and new. I made our traditional stuffing to go with the turkey, but also a new recipe for everything bagel stuffing. I also tried a new roasted winter vegetable dish to go alongside our usual green beans with almonds. Of course we also had mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and cranberry sauce:
It made a very pretty plate!
For dessert, all of the pies. Sadly, the pie I was most looking forward to trying, cranberry custard, didn’t set right, so even though it looked pretty, it didn’t come out right at all. I guess that’s the risk you run when you try a new recipe on a holiday!
This morning started with one of our favorite traditions of pie for breakfast.
I was very happy to get to go see Moose march in our town’s Santa Parade for the first time since 2019, and for the first time with the high school marching band! We honestly weren’t planning on staying for the whole thing since his group was near the beginning, but it was fun as well as short, so we ended up seeing it all!
I enjoyed having a place to wear one of my new Erstwilder Christmas brooches:
Turkey sandwiches for lunch are another great thing about the day after Thanksgiving!
And more pie:
We built the annual addition to our Lego winter village:
And had turkey soup for dinner:
After dinner, some of us went back downtown for the tree lighting and community sing:
And more pie for dessert when we got back home:
There you have it. It was a mostly normal holiday, and it was good to do things that felt familiar again!
The day I’ve been dreading waiting for is finally here…Turkey and Bunny started college!
I’m not going to lie…I’m relieved that they’re staying local and starting at the community college, and not just for financial reasons…I’m not ready to say good-bye yet!
This is a very exciting step for them, and a new experience for our whole family, and I can’t wait to hear all about it!
I don’t always have photos taken of me with my students on the first or last day of school in any given year, but as it turns out, I did have a photo of Turkey, Bunny, and I from our very first day of homeschooling way back in September 2008, and I made sure to take another today to commemorate Turkey’s and Bunny’s high school graduation.
I guess the experiment we decided to try for one year turned out ok!
