October

                       A good shot of the mile-high cake (Lucas's third birthday)

October is a big month for the Nault family, with many family celebrations and traditions.  It involves a lot of time in the Nault Family Kitchen (the only room in the house) and if you're really lucky, time in one of the coveted blue chairs.

The crux of the celebrations centre around Alison's birthday (Oct. 7th), Mike's birthday (Oct.14th) and Matthew's birthday (Dec. 28th).   As I understand it, Matthew's late December birthday slowly merged into the October celebrations-- a necessity if Matthew wanted some recognition, separate from Christmas holidays!   Once I became part of the family gatherings, the birthday celebrations had then morphed into a Thanksgiving extravaganza-- three birthdays, lots of family, one mile-high cake, and turkey.

Mile-high cake, as many of you know, is Joan's special recipe of chocolate cake and chocolate icing.  The chocolate cake is made in an angle food cake pan.... so it's one very tall cake (aka 'mile high') with a hole in the middle.  With clever calculations, it can be sliced meticulously into about 12+ pieces (leaving everyone begging for more).  It's usually served with a big blob of ice cream.

This year will be different, for a few reasons.  The Naults are selling their home in Toronto, so will be hosting Thanksgiving at the cottage instead.  A different venue will bring about new traditions.  We will also be deeply feeling the void of Mike and his Uncle Bill (U.B. pronounced 'Yoo-bee' for short, coined by Mike).  When Bill died, I wrote about the special connection between Bill and Mike.  I will be thinking about both of them very much in anticipation of the cottage weekend and throughout-- Bill's booming voice talking enthusiastically about an exciting new initiative in education, the two of them dissecting football highlights, Mike trying to goof around to get a laugh out of everyone (which would often involve 'bugging' Matthew), heaps of turkey, a big slice of chocolate cake, and good coffee.

A side note:  We've got 4 more months to round out a full year for this blog, which translates into 4 more postings per person.  Please keep that in mind as time passes.  If you feel you might have more to say, the following dates are 'open' each month:  3rd, 6th, 16th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, 29th, 30th, 31st.  These dates could also be used for posting some photos, that haven't yet been shared, if you've got some in mind.  If anyone wants to post a few thoughts for the first time, please feel free to email me.