Our Super Family-Oriented Weekend

Through no great forethought, Josh and I ended up having a really family-friendly Saturday complete with lots of time spent bonding with our children. It was pretty fantastic, even though it sort of happened organically.

It started the night before, when I began a fun little book while lying in bed. The book got more fun and I couldn't put it down until I'd read it all, which happened at 4:30 the next morning. Then I collapsed into bed and woke up to my alarm at 7:45 because it was the Young Women's turn to clean the chapel and we'd agreed to meet there at the unholy eight o'clock hour. Somewhat dizzy and very sleepy, I stumbled into the bathroom to brush my teeth and pull my hair back, then I drove to the church and helped them clean for an hour. It wasn't so bad. My mom used to work as a janitor for the Church, so she'd employ all of her children to clean the buildings with her after school. I have come to really love the time spent in quiet reflection or humming songs while I vacuum long hallways and empty trashes.

Then I drove home and showered, played with the kids while Josh showered, got the kids dressed, and we all drove to the zoo. There were like 14 other people in the zoo. The parking lot was eerily empty. It was 38 degrees outside, which isn't freezing but it's uncomfortable enough that I guess not many people want to wander around outside in it. I get that. I wish I'd brought gloves, but other than that, it was a fun time. We rode the carousel and enjoyed all the animals that were unusually alert and awake, like the snakes and armadillos and tortoises in the reptile house, and the snow leopard and Amur leopard and wolves and elephants and grizzly bears. Some animals prefer the cold, it seems. Or the mornings? Whatever the reason, they were really fun to watch.

After the zoo, we went to the British Market because I had a gift certificate from work. We bought some treats and drinks from the market side and a vegetable curry pasty and cheese and onion pie from the bakery side. The kids were really only interested in their weird circular chips, but we had a lovely lunch there. 

Then we hurried home to put James down for a nap. We spent an hour or so vacuuming, doing dishes and laundry, and generally tidying up the house before I just couldn't take it anymore. I took an hour nap to try to make up for my lost night of sleep. Josh got started on an amazing dinner. When I woke, I had to go back downtown to get my hair done, and by the time I came back home that evening, Josh's parents had arrived for dinner. We'd invited them earlier in the week when we realized that we never have them over for dinner (but we always go to their house for dinner). We were a little embarrassed at the realization.

Josh made a veritable feast of nations. He made vichyssoise soup with sliced sourdough bread as a starter, then rotkohl with apple and vinegar and weiner schnitzel for the entree. We also had honeydew melon and Josh's parents brought a broccoli side dish with stuffing and sliced almonds mixed in. Everything was delicious! Then we had banoffee pie for dessert. We left the table stuffed and very contented.

The soup is French, the rotkohl is German, the schnitzel is Austrian (apparently weiner mean "from Vienna" and that kind of schnitzel is prepared differently than the kind you'd see in Germany), the sourdough is American, and the dessert is British. We didn't mean to make it so multinational but it ended up being very tasty.

Then Josh's parents played hide-and-go-seek with Scarlet and James for about an hour. The kids love it more than anything and Josh's parents love their grandkids more than anything, so everyone was happy. They left when it was time for James to go to bed. It ended up being a very enjoyable day with our family.

On Sundays, we've decided to carry on a tradition I had with my family. Growing up, we'd make popcorn enough to feed the entire family and we'd watch the Disney's original movie on television. That was a tradition born of necessity because popcorn is an affordable meal for a family of 14. For Josh and myself, we decided to adopt the quality family time aspect of the tradition. We don't watch t.v. on Sundays, but on Sunday evenings, we make an exception and put on a Disney movie for the kids, pop some popcorn (microwave this time because we're pretty lazy, and also it's just a supplement to dinner because we definitely make dinner on Sundays), and we spend the last two hours before bedtime on the couch, cuddled up with each other in the semi-darkness, enjoying our sweet little family. It's a fantastic way to spend the last hours of weekend before the next week unfolds.