Thanksgiving In the Homeland

We headed up to NJ on Tuesday and came home yesterday. It was a great visit. I came prepared with lots of arts and crafts things to do with the kids because when the three of them are together in my mom's living room its like three crazy hot balls of energy bouncing off each other in a 10x10 foot metal box--someones getting burned. Here's our turkey, indian headress, and our fish basket.

Connor especially loved the fish basket (but only once Aunt Michelle made the fish!). It's funny the things that inspire their imagination. Once he had the fish basket in hand, about 90 minutes of improv imagination play began that involved him being some sort of fisherman/fishmonger and me being some poor homeless old woman with a bad Manchester UK accent. He wants to sell me fish, I say I have no money. He tells me too bad, then he comes back and tells me to take the biggest fish because he knows I need food and he doesn't want me to starve. I ask him how he can afford to give fish away and he says its okay because he has millions of fish because his fishing boat is really a Navy ship that they let him use because he is such a great fisherman he feeds the Navy. I thank him profusely and he hugs me (with tears in his eyes, I swear) and tells me to eat it and be safe and happy. Too sweet. I almost cried it was so nice. Then he comes back and we do the whole thing over and over and over again. Each time there are variations, the most interesting of which is the time he tells me he wants to help me because I remind him of his dead old mother who died of liver cancer. I wonder where he got that and I wonder what it says about his fears? He loved going through different iterations of it and working through all sorts of life problems in the context of the role playing. I think we'll have to do more of it. I'd best get some costumes and other accents in my repertoire.

He also suddenly is interested in poetry. Again, I have no idea where this is coming from, but I'll gladly encourage it. He announced that he wanted to write a poem, told me to get him some paper and sit down. Then he spoke the poem aloud and asked me to give him the letters to write it down. Here it is:

"Angels in the blue sky. America in the gods." So weird and funny and interesting!

After dinner on Thanksgiving we headed down to Smithville, NJ. When I was a kid, it was one of those actual working villages where we would go on field trips to learn about "olden times". I always liked it. I particularly remember some actor who roamed around with a horse and carriage doing "Snake Oil" sales demonstrations and a band with guys playing the jug, the spoons, and washboard. There was always a section of shops and restaurants outside the entrance. Now, it has entirely been converted to shops. Kind of sad. But it was nice out and good to give the kids a place to run, get a carousel ride and a spin around on the train.

On the way home yesterday we stopped in Camden, NJ to visit the Battleship New Jersey. We took the "Fire Power Tour" and spent about two hours walking, crouching, and climbing all over her. What an entirely awesome thing to see. We were able to go inside the main gun turrets and learn how they loaded the 15 inch guns--every 30 seconds. It was amazing. Our tour guide was super nice and let Connor (the only kid on the tour--lucky him) do all sorts of fun things like sound the warning alarms and use the periscope. We stood right next to the Tomahawk Missile box launchers and learned about the ship's incredible history. She was launched on the one year anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and served in pacific during WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and off of Beirut, Lebanon in 1983. She is the most decorated US battleship. We all enjoyed it and were reminded of the sacrifice that so many have made on our behalf.