turkey

Hope all you Canajuns had a good Thanksgiving weekend! Jeff and I went to the family cottage this past weekend. The whole clan was up, including our two nieces Brittany (2 1/2 yrs) and Olivia (4 months). Brittany and I did major bonding on the weekend. It's quite an egoboo to get up in the morning and be greeted by an enthusiastic toddler jumping up and down, clapping her hands and yelling excitedly, "DOBBIE! DOBBIE!" Favourite game of the weekend: Brittany would sit on my lap and wait. I'd warn her that an earthquake was coming and start shaking my legs very lightly. She'd giggle and keep waiting. Soon, of course, the earthquake would be on us full force and Brittany would be bouncing up and down, flung back and forth by a tremor that was surely an 11 on the Richter scale. And at the peak of the earthquake, I'd grab her around the waist, yelling "LOOK OOOOOOUT!!!!!" and throw her through the air, aiming her at a pile of pillows on the couch. And of course she'd scramble back into my lap, yelling "MORE! MORE!" I lost count of how many times I did this in a row.

Another highlight: on Saturday morning, the Ridpath women (Jeff's mom, his sister, his brother's wife, and me) booked an appointment to meet in the sauna, sans kids and animals. The sauna is a closet-sized wooden shack with a small heater thingy in the corner. We sat for a while gabbing (about things which our men will never know, of course), and then jumped in the lake. And WOW was the water cold, the sort of cold that knocks the breath out of you for a second or two after you hit it. And by the time you get your breath back, you're yelling and scrambling to get out of the water and back into the sauna. :-) Lots of fun; we did this twice.

Sunday was the day of the annual Cottagers' Turkey Bowl, a football game in which cottagers from the north end of the lake battle it out against the south end. Jeff played for a bit but ended up spending most of it on the sidelines chatting with Willi Powell (you may recall I'm in love with Willi's young son Spencer). Where are the women during the game? On the sidelines huddled under blankets and muffled in sweaters, drinking beer and hot chocolate and gossiping, of course. :-) From time to time a woman will play in the game, but it's a Rare Thing. After the game (I think our side won), everyone goes back to their cottages to eat way too much Thanksgiving turkey and pumpkin pie.

Officemusic: WOMEN IN SONG (various artists).