Thanksgiving Break Day 1 & 2

My mom went home sick from work on Friday, so I ended up going out by myself with Noah Friday night. We were having fun shopping until I put Noah in his car seat so I could try on clothes. He cried and cried and cried. One of the workers at the store knocked on my dressing room door and offered to help, but I wasn't about to let a stranger go off with my baby while I tried on clothes. Thanks, but no thanks. I fed Noah a bit to calm him down and then I quickly tried on the rest of the clothes and then left after buying a couple of outfits for myself and a cute fleece jacket for Noah. I look forward to a peaceful, relaxed, shopping trip by myself in 8 months!

I took Zoe, Emily, Eleanor, and Noah to "The Nutcracker" yesterday. We went to the University of Maine at Machias for the performance, which is 2 hours away from where we live. We stopped at the church on the way to meet up with Kristen, Kayla, Summer, and Jenny. Kristen suggested going to the ballet to fulfill the goal of going to a cultural event, so we went and we had fun...although my girls were very tired of being in the car by the time we got home. Eleanor's favorite part of "The Nutcracker" was all of it! Zoe's favorite part was when two dancers did cartwheels across the stage together, and Emily's favorite part was the dancing at the end. I was able to watch all of the first half, but during the second half I changed Noah and fed him in the lobby. I watched parts of the second half, but never sat in my seat to watch it. I look forward to going to see "The Nutcracker" next year and sitting through the entire show without stressing about my baby being too loud...happy loud or cranky loud. Noah proved yesterday that my movie theater days are over until he is old enough to stay with a sitter.

We woke up to snow yesterday morning. Not a lot, but enough to look like a winter wonderland and to get the kids excited for Christmas. Zoe said it felt like they were on Christmas vacation, not Thanksgiving vacation. It snowed lightly throughout the day and it was snowing harder as we entered Machias. Perfect weather to get us in "The Nutcracker" spirit.

Matt, Zoe, Emily, and Zach traveled to Rockland today for church. So that left Eleanor, Kate, and Noah to go with me to Ellsworth. My parents stayed home sick. Kate was not excited about going to Nursery today. The Sunday School President (Jerry) came looking for me while I was waiting for Kate to accept being in Nursery. At that point, Tiffany was able to distract Kate and I left to teach my class. Jerry started the class and asked if someone would hold Noah for me. The high councilor, Brother Tang volunteered without hesitation. Noah was happy for a short while, but soon Brother Tang had to bring him out into the hall. Sister Lee took Noah then and popped in to see if I had a binkie for Noah...sorry, no. I taught and listened to Noah cry and finally asked Jerry to bring Noah to me, so I could hold him and hopefully calm him down. That worked and then Brian Barrett offered to take Noah, so I handed him over once again. Brian had the magic touch because he brought Noah back to me after class and Noah was asleep. I felt better about how my class went today and several people said they really enjoyed it. Two classes down, ? more to go.