Thanksgiving!

A while ago, Eleanor found a shiny gold bead at the park, and carried it around in her shoe until it was time to go home. She kept it in her drawer of preciouses. She spent tens of minutes washing it in the sink, and I kept saying, Be careful, our sinks don't have stoppers, if it falls down the drain then it's gone and we can't get it back.

And then one day it fell down the drain.

She was devastated. And Grandma was coming to babysit that evening, so I wrote Grandma a card at Eleanor's dictation, asking that if Grandma came across a bead in her travels, would she mail it to Eleanor (we have lived far from family for so long that this is the only way Eleanor understands to get things to people).

The next morning, I got a text saying that Eleanor might have mail at the door, she should check. It was a bead.

That was weeks ago, and she still talks about it all the time.

This is the kind of thing that wouldn't have been possible in Saskatoon, both the babysitting and the next-day hand-delivery of the bead. It snowed in Saskatoon last week and I felt so nostalgic. Snow is fun; rain is garbage weather. I still miss Josie so much. But we spent this weekend hanging out with my family,

with Joel's family,

and with our own little nuclear family, which is not the only family we have anymore.

Happy Thanksgiving.