The View from a Car Seat Neighbor

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00:00 Happy

00:10 Challenging me. "Whatcha got, Mama?"

00:15 "Ooooh, a toy!" I call this the aardvark face. 

00:17 Content...the toy is still shiny.

00:20 Still intrigued.

01:30 Shake, shake, shake!

03:20 Toy walked the plank and vanished into the abyss of the car...aka out of Mama's reach. On our fifth round of "If You're Happy and You Know It..." The song is losing its luster.

03:33 Furrowed eyebrows threatening me with the end of a content baby

03:45 The sing-a-long is over. 

03:50 Unhappiness expressed

04:00 And bye-bye baby smiles, hello tired baby eye rubs and, hopefully, sweet baby dreams. 

7 Quick Takes (Volume 3)

It's time for 7 Quick Takes Friday...which means 7 Quick Takes Sunday for me! I blame a very hectic Thanksgiving weekend which I am about to describe in quick take fashion. Head over to see Jen at Conversion Diary to see more.

1. Fifteen and a half hours in the car. We spent 15.5 hours in the car from Wednesday night until this morning. With a baby that detests his car seat. Fun, right? 

2. 62 year old wedding china and treasured applesauce.  We spent Thanksgiving day at my grandma's and twenty of us passed the day away eating lots of scrumptious food on her wedding china. Isn't it beautiful? Props to my Aunt Ann for the table setup! One of the dishes that graced our holiday table was defrosted applesauce that was made from the Macintosh tree that used to shade Grandma's porch. It was the perfect climbing tree. My lips are sealed on how long ago the tree was cut down. For the record, I enjoyed the applesauce! 

3. Thankful for - my clarification Every year at Thanksgiving, after we pray the usual, "Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts..." we go around in a circle saying what we are thankful for. Now, I may enjoy writing and being overly descriptive, flowery and verbose, but I'm  not that great at creating a thought in my head and consisely delivering that thought in a understandable sentence on the fly. Surprise! (not...) I need time! So when it came to be my turn during our annual circle of thanks, I blurted out my confusing sentence followed by a few stammered corrections before finally just conceding my defeat by confessing, "It made sense in my head!" Hmph. So! Here is what I meant to say:

I am thankful to be part of such a big extended family in which a holiday spent with just twenty relatives is considered quiet and small even though it would be considered huge to anyone else. 

Cliffs notes version: I am thankful for my big extended family. Thank you, Grandma, for having thirteen kids!!  

4. My cousins are four time state champions! We traveled to Indianapolis on Friday to watch my little cousins (okay, okay, they tower over me now...) play in the state football finals for the fourth year in a row. And they won! I am so proud of them for all of their hard work and for taking care of business! 

One of the champion cousins on the big screen! 

5. ND Fan extremeness? So, in case you can't tell from my excessive mention of Notre Dame, we love our alma mater and her football team. How much? Well, after my cousins' football game, we stuck around to watch Jaylon Smith, ND's five star recruit and the third best high school senior in the country, play in the state final for his division. Welcome to the ND family! Hope we don't scare you with our fervor...

Less than a year old and already following ND recruiting

6. Will Smith is stuck in my head. Why? Because...well, sing it with me! WE ARE GOING TO MIAMI...WELCOME TO MIAMI! Notre Dame is #1 and is going to the BCS Championship game! Go to 1:16 in this Manti Te'o interview for my favorite clip from the post-game interviews. I love seeing players who have worked so hard being giddy with happiness. I'm sure Manti was hoping to be described as "giddy." 

7. Please send in your advent wreaths! For Advent, I will be featuring Advent wreaths from my readers on the blog. If you would like to submit yours, please send a photo (or photos!) and a little bit about your family's Advent traditions to cedarsandtinyflowers {at} gmail.com. I hope to post one every day starting on December 2 (the first Sunday of Advent) in addition to my regular posts. Can't wait to read about your wreaths!