For our first Thanksgiving with Jasmine we wanted to spend it all to ourselves. We started off the day with a breakfast of french toast and watching the Macy’s parade.

Emily and I realized we never actually sat down and watched the whole parade. Well, the first hour was just promos for various network and Broadway shows. Jasmine enjoyed the dance numbers. The second hour the parade started to show up, but again with lots of promos. And the third hour we were ready to turn it off, but we were determined to make it to the end. The announcer encouraged us by saying the end of the parade with Santa’s sled would be right up after this commercial break. And throughout the third hour, the announcer kept saying that over and over, and we apparently fell for it, since we kept watching until the very end. Ok, even though I’m complaining it still was fun, especially seeing all the festive costumes and giant balloons.

Next up was the movie Monsters vs. Aliens, which we’ve been looking forward too. About a quarter of the way into the movie we were getting hungry. So Emily began cooking our Thanksgiving meal of mash potatoes, stuffing, green beans, chicken piccata and tofu-veggie casserole. Yes, the astute reader will note the absence of turkey. I’m really into chicken piccata right now so I bucked tradition. The meal was amazing and I had fourths. I loved how festive Emily made the table with beautiful place settings, pumpkins and candles.

After the meal, we finished up Monsters vs. Aliens which was very good and had many funny parts. And we pretty much hibernated the afternoon away on the couch watching Happy Feet on TV and watching Jasmine sing and dance. Emily made oatmeal cookies and a vegetable platter for our dinner, since we were all still stuffed from lunch.

Mom gave Jasmine a bath and got her tucked into bed. Then she read us the next two chapters of “Midnight on the Moon” from the tree house adventure series.  I sat on Jasmine’s bed watching her until she fell asleep, just enjoying the moment.

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We had three events lined up for the day. First up was a “Spooktacular” parks & rec event at the historic Jenkins Estate and Fanno Farmhouse. The site was beautiful as you can see in the photos with perfect Portland misty weather. They had themed kids activities from face painting to ring toss. Then there was the relaxing hay ride to a pumpkin patch where Jasmine got to pick out a pumpkin for dad to carry back to the car. After finishing up the activities we strolled through the nice gardens.

The second event was a dad and daughter outing to the Bridgeport shopping center for trick-or-treating around the stores. They had live entertainment by Disney radio, which I don’t know what that is, but Jasmine enjoyed watching a couple dancers boogie down. After 30 minutes of trick-or-treating we passed the playground and Jasmine decided this would be more fun than collecting candy. So dad got to sit down and relax while daughter played with the other costumed kids for 30 minutes. Then it was time to head home for dinner.

The third event of the day was dad and daughter hitting up our neighbors for candy – I mean um residential trick-or-treating. Mom stayed home and manned the door. Jasmine collected a good haul of packaged delights. And her parents were quiet considerate in helping Jasmine eat the candy.

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We had a wonderful brunch with our friends Kristin and Mac. We had scrambled eggs, tater tots, and lots of yummy bacon. For desert we had cherry turnovers. After the meal I played ghost for a bit with the kids as they ran around until the screaming was too much for our ears. Then we cleared the table and had ourselves a pumpkin carving. The adults did most of the work while the kids “supervised” and provided the final touches such as popping out the pre-carved sections.

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We went to our first Halloween event of the season at our favorite Parks & Rec Center. Jasmine made her grand debut as the Pirate Princess. We arrived to the festival just in time to see the zombie dancers give a great performance on stage. And yes, they were playing Michael Jackson’s song Thriller. Jasmine was enthralled. We then wandered around admiring the great costumes and trying out some the activities such as putting your hand into some scary boxes to feel what was inside.

Soon enough Jasmine grew bored and excitedly asked to go the haunted house. So after standing in line for many minutes, we went inside whereupon Jasmine immediately yelled to get the heck out upon hearing all the scary noises. So dad picked her up and carried her the rest of the way through the maze. Afterwords, at the crayon coloring table, Jasmine shared her haunted house experiences with the other kids saying “A zombie chased me and my dad.” The other girl said “A zombie chased us too. When I grow up and have kids, I will make sure they never go to a haunted house.” Jasmine replied “me too.”

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Emily’s mom, Carolyn,  came out to visit. Jasmine really hit it off with ‘Grandma’. We went out for lunch a lot and enjoyed getting our pumpkins for Halloween and fresh caramel apples. We went to an international dance festival at the library. Jasmine almost got up on stage twice to dance. Each day after school Jasmine came home to vegetable appetizers in a variety of shapes and designs made by Grandma. The visit was over too quickly, but we are looking forward to seeing her again at Christmas.

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