Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday.
We took a new adventure and then joined some friends locally for a feast.  Caroline spent the night...so we're down a kid.
I went to WalMart at 2:30 to finish up Christmas shopping.  I'm not in to the whole Black Friday thing - I went mainly because it's the middle of the night, the store is quiet and I can bring things in the house without being accosted by four crazy urchins.  There is such little time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year that I feel like everything is more frenetic than usual.  There really isn't time to shop when I consider what constitutes the feeding and watering of 4 kids, 2 upcoming birthdays, the Christmas pageant, homework and everything else that will come up...
I'm tired, but now that it's my normal wake up time, I'm getting my second wind.  I can't bring myself to get on the treadmill quite yet, though...

Yesterday morning we ventured down to Arlington National Cemetery.  I had a talk with the Olders the night before about what kind of behavior is expected in a place like Arlington.  They appeared to understand.  Caroline informed me in the morning that she didn't want to go because in her dream, we went and Nate misbehaved and the "soldiers got him".
I feared this wouldn't be too far from reality - so we had contingency plans,in case anyone's behavior went awry.   ;)
But the kids did very well and BOTH Sam and Caroline requested to go back and explore some more.
We hit some of the highlights there, but nowhere near what we could have.   We'll go back when it's a bit warmer. 
We saw
-The Tomb of the Unknowns from the Civil War
-The Challenger Memorial
-The Kennedy grave sites
-the Lee House (which appeared to be in general disrepair)
-The Tomb of the Unknowns from WWI

The kids were picking out names and figuring out where in history the people were that were buried.  They were looking at symbols.  It was neat to see them start to put some pieces together.  They told me  why Arlington Cemetery is where it is and the strategic importance of that position (what a view!) during the Civil War.  "Wait, Mom.  You're telling me that a Confederate General married George Washington's grand daughter?!  How did THAT happen?"...interesting stuff...
Nate was fascinated with the guards at the Tomb of the Unknowns from WWI.  He just stood and watched.  Without moving.  I can't say that I ever remember him being so still for so long as he was  yesterday.  "Wow.  I wike da solders, Mama."  He was excited and totally respectful at the same time - interesting behavior for a three year old.   Especially Nate. 
It was nice to see them engaging and exploring and taking interest in having an adventure.

It put a new perspective on Thankfulness.