Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada, and since we are celebrating a wide variety of holidays from around the world this year, we are having a turkey dinner this evening. We were supposed to celebrate Sukkoth last week, but when I realized that a thanksgiving type menu is also what is typically served for that holiday, I decided we'd just wait until Canadian Thanksgiving. I did serve cranberry sauce last week on the day we learned about Sukkoth which greatly pleased Nadia and Oliver. Paul would probably have been fine with three Thanksgiving dinners (the third being when we celebrate the US holiday next month) as turkey is one of his favorite foods to eat. I have a turkey breast in the oven, made ricotta mashed potatoes (bought yellow potatoes for the first time as that's what the recipe called for), made a pumpkin two layer cheesecake, will be making stuffing in a little bit, and I'll serve more cranberry sauce. Oliver and I would have liked it if the menu also included sweet potatoes. I didn't use that much pumpkin for the cheesecake so I'm going to make pumpkin cookies later this week. Speaking of international recipes, yesterday I made Tortilla Espanola and two days ago I made

a flourless chocolate cake. Paul ate leftover split pea and ham soup as he wouldn't touch the Tortilla Espanola since it contained a little bit of onion and red pepper. The kids would have liked it better if I had omitted those two ingredients. I wasn't sure if they had ever eaten red pepper before so I wanted them to at least try it once.

This morning I took Ian to the orthodontist we've visited several times over the last few years. This was to be the first appointment that cost money and the one that would lead to the treatment plan (and price) being given to me later this month. As is the norm at medical offices these days, I had to fill out a COVID questionnaire, and they took Ian's temp. I was able to check no for everything except for one item. That one asked if we had traveled out of the state within the past 14 days. I told the receptionist that we had been in Ohio and Kentucky from October 1-7. At the moment I forgot to include West Virginia, but we were in that state for less than 24 hours. She looked up the latest guidelines from the state of Pennsylvania. The list of "bad" states was updated three days ago. Ohio and West Virginia are not on

that list, but Kentucky is. She asked if we flew or drove there. She told the doctor what I shared, and he said we had to reschedule the appointment. Paul had already suggested I cancel the appointment since we would have to pay $250 to receive an estimate for the treatment plan, but I hadn't done so. Driving there and then being told we had to reschedule was the final straw. In reality Ian spends far more time "quarantined" that kids who go to school. There are some weeks he interacts with people outside our home only once in the week - at church on Sunday morning and everyone is required to wear a face mask in his Sunday School class, have their temperatures taken, etc. 

I didn't reschedule the appointment on the spot because I decided to make more phone calls first. I called four more orthodontists this afternoon. The first two charge even more for the first appointment that results in the treatment plan and estimate. Thankfully the third and fourth offices I called also do the first appointment for free. I received one (free) estimate on September 29. I also asked three of the four offices I called today whether they

include headgears in their treatment plans. I wasn't happy that the first treatment plan included Ian wearing a headgear for at least 22 hours a day. Two of the three said they don't use headgears at all. The third said that they sometimes use headgears but never require a patient to wear a headgear outside of the home. The next two appointments are scheduled for October 19 and November 2. I'm hoping that we end up choosing one of those two orthodontists. Nadia is very happy that it's against the COVID rules to bring other children to an appointment. She likes getting paid to babysit Oliver when I take Ian to an appointment. (In the picture above she is holding one of Babe Ruth's bats)