Our friend, Janelle, has been living in Australia since just before Sawyer was born. She is home for a long winter visit. This morning we went for a wonderful little hike with her and our friend Altan. We are so grateful that the deep freeze we have been in for the last 2 weeks has broken and we can enjoy some time outside!
When we were in DC, Omi showed Sawyer the puppets that my grandmother, Petra, made- including Sinterklaas and ZwartePiet.
We decided that we want to celebrate Sinterklaas on December5/6th so that Sawyer learns more about his Dutch heritage. So last night we put Sawyer's new wood shoes out by the fireplace and this morning we opened a couple little gifts and ate huge plates of blueberry/banana pancakes! 
And this one of Sawyer and Grandpaji (who Saw calls Boppee right now).
Sawyer did some more reading on his own...
some of his reading was pretty heavy stuff!
So we are happy to report that Sawyer got his first pair of wooden shoes- straight from Holland. With his footed pajamas, they were a perfect fit! At first he tried out the great sounds they make on the wood floor...
We took Sawyer to the Natural History museum and the Air and Space museum. He had a blast checking out all the planes.
There was an area that was all about air craft carriers- he was completely enthralled by the movie that showed the planes landing and taking off from the deck. I caught this pic of him watching the play by play.
Sawyer has always been very determined. He usually has a pretty good idea of what he wants. Here is a good example. When we were at the museum, he saw a row of chairs. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to them and said "Mamma sit." He then went and got Dan, pulled him to the chairs and said "Poppa sit." He then rounded up Omi and Grandpaji. He filled the final chair and we quickly begged a stranger to grab a picture of the moment. Here we are:
We had a wonderful traditional turkey dinner-- complete with sweet potatoes with marshmallows, which Sawyer found particularly appealing!
Dan got a little loopy along the way...
...as did Sawyer. Luckily, playing under the table kept Sawyer pretty entertained.
It has been a few weeks since my last post. November was a very hectic and sad month. Dan went to Maine at the end of the first week of November to help care for his ailing grandmother, Dodie/Nana. The following week we all went out for her funeral. It was very sad to say goodbye to such a wonderful woman.
