Hugo, my brother-in-law, contacted me a few weeks ago wondering if we would be willing to host Thanksgiving dinner. The boys wouldn't have wanted to miss an opportunity to see Patches because they adore her.
We made arrangements for them to arrive on Wednesday and stay until Saturday morning. They had friends who lived in Chicago and planned to visit them before they went back to Ohio. Hugo promised to bring their fortune cookie maker and some empanada wraps so that we could make some after-Thanksgiving treats.
They arrived on Wednesday and we spent all of Thursday cooking. Arthur complained about the rotten weather; the snow had entirely melted from the constant rain. Hugo and Arthur wrote up many fortunes for fortune cookies and then spent the next hour baking, stuffing, and folding the cookies - which, incidentally, had been made with too much milk, making them more like crepes than cookies. They were still quite tasty.
Hugo and John-Charles also took the boys to the Rockford Children's Museum where they spent the entire day playing and building their own wooden creations. Arthur brought home an airplane that Hugo had helped him create. Balin didn't bring home anything and seemed reluctant to explain why.
While the boys spent time with their uncles, I watched Patches for the day. My job, it seems, was far easier than theirs; Patches only needed a couple of walks, while my boys needed constant supervision and lunch.
The only black spot to the entire weekend was when Patches discovered the gerbils. Patches is an incredibly sweet dog, but she has "killer instincts"; often attacking and killing squirrels and rabbits and other small creatures. She wandered into the boys' room and saw the gerbils, instantly leaping to the glass aquarium and snarling. Arthur ran from the room in tears, crying, "Patches is trying to kill the gerbils!" For the rest of the weekend, the door was kept firmly shut.
Other than that, it was a pleasant Thanksgiving.
Blessed be.
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