Turkey

Graduation Redux

Turkey’s college graduation was almost two weeks ago…today we decided to run it back!

When he graduated, we knew he had earned Latin Honors (summa cum laude, if you’re keeping track), but because he was a transfer student to UMSL his junior year, they had to wait for each of his classes to be finalized so he had the proper credit hours as a Triton to make the Latin Honors official. I won’t even start on how ridiculous it is that they don’t either require the professors to have those grades in prior to graduation, or simply delay graduation until they know which of their transfer students (a large percentage of the graduating class) have earned them, thereby depriving all of them the experience of having those honors read at graduation in front of everyone. OK, I started a little bit, and it is ridiculous…Bunny didn’t run into this problem when she received her honors as a transfer student to WKU at graduation last year. But he will have summa cum laude on his diploma, and today we drove out to UMSL to pick up his honors tassel in the school colors of red and gold (and took a few more pictures with it).

We did a replay of his graduation dinner of Ronto Wraps and the “High Republic Cordial,” from the new Star Wars: Galactic Drinks cookbook:

But I made a different dessert this time…since we’ve been in Chicago recently, I made a Portillo’s cake!

I’m still really frustrated for him (and the other graduating transfer students), that he wasn’t recognized the way he should have been at the ceremony, but as least he knows he earned the honors!

  • Bachelor of Science in Mathematics
  • Alumni Award for the Senior Math Student With Highest GPA
  • Summa Cum Laude
  • Dean’s List
  • Pierre Laclede Honors College
  • Accelerated Master’s Program
  • Phi Kappa Phi
  • Highest UMSL Score–MAA Putnam Exam
  • Mathematical Association of American Missouri Section Meeting Attendee
  • 2026 Graduate

The 2026 Graduate

It’s graduation day! Turkey received his Bachelor of Science in mathematics, which is just amazing to me…he knows and loves math so well!

Very early this morning, we all headed to UMSL for the graduation ceremony for the College of Arts and Sciences.

The rain held off long enough afterward for us to get some pictures:

And the traditional parents and graduate photo at home, of course!

Turkey picked Star Wars Ronto Wraps for his celebratory dinner:

And we toasted him with the “High Republic Cordial,” a sweet and spicy drink from the new Star Wars: Galactic Drinks cookbook:

For dessert, we had Biscoff cookie butter pie:

I’m so proud of all of Turkey’s accomplishments, and it was my joy and privilege to celebrate him today!

  • Bachelor of Science in Mathematics
  • Alumni Award for the Senior Math Student With Highest GPA
  • Summa Cum Laude
  • Dean’s List
  • Pierre Laclede Honors College
  • Accelerated Master’s Program
  • Phi Kappa Phi
  • Highest UMSL Score–MAA Putnam Exam
  • Mathematical Association of American Missouri Section Meeting Attendee
  • 2026 Graduate

Celebrating 23

Turkey’s 23rd birthday was earlier this week, but we celebrated it today. I was really happy with how his angel food cake turned out, and the fresh strawberries I got for it were amazingly good, especially considering the time of year!

Moose pointed out to me that as I am currently 46, Turkey will be half my age until my next birthday!

Thanksgiving 2025

We’ve had another fun three-day Thanksgiving celebration!

It started, as always, on Wednesday, with the making of the pies:

We sadly didn’t have any company this year, so it really felt like a very laid-back holiday. We watched the Macy’s Parade and played parade bingo and then took in the dog show while I puttered about, getting things ready…I set the table extra early this year, so that was a task done long before dinner:

I found some time for Animal Crossing…I always like to hang out with Roald on a holiday!

And then time for dinner! I think this was one of the better turkeys I’ve ever made, and all of our regular side dishes were delicious, too:

We watched Holiday Inn while we cleaned up and I boiled the turkey carcass for turkey soup. And then we had pie! My choice of cranberry-rhubarb was just as tart and delicious as I hoped it would be!

Today began just as yesterday ended…with more pie for breakfast!

Chickadee and I went to the town Santa Parade, which is always a fun time:

When we got home, we had our traditional turkey sandwiches for lunch:

And I had lunch dessert, which I think should be a regular thing!

For dinner I made our day-after-Thanksgiving turkey soup:

And then Moose, Chickadee, and I went to the town tree lighting:

We also visited the Christkindlmarkt:

And checked out the gingerbread displays:

The storefronts were looking good, too!

Back home we had one more round of pie:

And now I’m exhausted, but the fun is just beginning, because Advent starts on Sunday!

Thanksgiving 2024

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone far too quickly!

Our annual celebration started with Pie Day(s). Like I did last year, I split the work of the pie baking up over two days…we made 10 pies plus the cranberries and stuffing.

I love that our table looks a little bit different every year!

I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have later, so I checked in with Franklin to see how his dinner preparations were coming along:

Bunny wasn’t able to join us until Thanksgiving Day, and had to leave again this morning already, so we did things a little different. We ended up watching the Macy’s Parade twice on Thanksgiving Day (only one game of Parade Bingo, though), along with the dog show and a few of our favorite Thanksgiving shows (Mad About You‘s “Giblets for Murray,” Gilmore Girls‘ “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving,” The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s “Talking Turkey,” Scrubs’ “My Day Off,” A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, and M*A*S*H‘s “The Yalu Brick Road.”).

We had our traditional dinner…turkey and gravy, stuffing and mashed potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, and green beans with almonds, cranberries, and rolls:

It’s always a pretty plate!

And so many pies to choose from!

I went with pecan, Nutella, and pumpkin:

I had enough time to pop back into Animal Crossing to help Franklin procure the final ingredients for dinner on the island:

This morning started with pie for breakfast…this time, Nutella and Biscoff cookie butter:

Chickadee and I went to the town Santa parade:

I love a turkey sandwich on rye the day after Thanksgiving!

For lunch dessert, I tried the caramel apple pie:

The Lego Winter Village set was built over the course of two days…I have mixed feelings about this year’s model (I really wish it was just a post office, not Santa’s post office), but I do think the mail sorting system is really cool, and I love the hot air ballon. We got a bonus set of a delivery truck, and it’s really cool, too!

Dinner was turkey soup (of course):

And then Moose, Chickadee, and I went to the town tree lighting:

We also enjoyed checking out the gingerbread house contest…here are some of my favorites:

And one more piece of pie for dessert!

We get to have another leftovers dinner tomorrow (and more pie of course!), but that pretty much wraps up this year’s Markel Family Thanksgiving…on to Advent and Christmas!

Three Students, Three Colleges, Three States

I was thinking to myself the other day how funny it is that over half of my children are now in college, and they’re going to three different schools in three different states!

Triton Tuesday

Today is Turkey’s first day at the college to which he transferred! I got to go with him on Friday for orientation, and I had a fun time walking around the campus, meeting some of the faculty, and especially getting to see the mascot!

I can’t to see what the next two years have in store for him!

12 and 21

I have always been intrigued by the way Turkey’s and Chickadee’s ages line up, from the time he was nine years old and she was nine months, to the brief few days last year when he was 20 and she was 10. We have another fun age coincidence now that they’ve both celebrated birthdays in 2024…their ages of 12 and 21 are flipped, and I’m amused!

21!

I can’t believe it, but today is Turkey’s 21st birthday! We actually celebrated yesterday, starting with opening gifts after church. I was especially excited about the Steamboat Willie pocket watch we gave him:

Since we had already changed the day we were celebrating, we also flipped the order of things around, and had his birthday (cheese)cake at lunchtime. He chose a Black Forest cheesecake, which is one of my favorite new recipes:

For dinner, as is tradition, I made a turkey dinner, complete with stuffing, cranberries, mashed potatoes, cauliflower (his favorite), and rolls. He requested the “Piko Piko Slammer,” a type of pink lemonade with notes of lemongrass and grapefruit, from our new Sonic The Hedgehog Official Cookbook to go with dinner, too.

It really doesn’t seem possible to me that one of my children is already 21…I remember it all just like it was yesterday. Those years certainly did fly by quickly, and I’m so proud of the young man I get to call my son!