This was our first year ever to host Thanksgiving dinner and what a great event it was!  I really enjoyed having our family in our home and enjoying our new yard.  One of the highlights for me was watching the kids run and play on the swingset installed the day before by Marc and our good friend Stefan.  They had worked for a couple weeks sanding it and prepping it, then assembling the set so the children had something new and fun to enjoy on Thanksgiving.  It was definitely worth the wait.  Our friends Stefan and Pamela gave us their swing set over a year ago when we were looking for our new home.  It has been sitting and waiting a long time to be enjoyed and it surely was that day (and every day since).  I also enjoyed not having to transport hot food to a different location.  Those in attendance were my Mom, brothers (one of them brought a date :)), sister and her family, my Auntie Coco, and Marc’s mom and sister.  There were 21 in all. 

The food was delicious and some of us ended the evening at the movies.  We saw the new Muppett Movie and laughed A-LOT!  We also got to go through my dad’s old baseball caps and boy did he have a ton.  Us kids and the grandkids each chose some for a keepsake of “Papa”.  It was a really lovely day.  I couldn’t have felt more peace, love, and gratitude for the many wonderful blessings the Lord has poured upon me this year, despite the heartache and loss I have also experienced throughout the course of the last year.  We are a truly blessed family.

Several weekends ago on an overnight with their Grandma, the kids went to a garage sale of one of Grandma’s friends and found many wonderful treasures.  One of which was a puppy shaped cake pan.  The girls baked and decorated this lovely cake with little help.  Good job girls!

My baby brother Daniel turned 30 on November 17th.  He was very excited for his birthday (as he is every year) and began planning his “surprise” party a couple months in advance (as he does every year).  Without fail, Daniel plans the location, time, menu, food assignments, and gifts and gives every family member a 3X5 card with their assignments several weeks in advance (every year). 

This year we thought we would actually try to suprise him by throwing a real suprise party the Sunday before his birthday as we already had family plans for the adults to go to dinner on the 17th.  Daniel had previously mentioned a get together at my cousin Tanya’s home with as many relatives as he could muster.  We have seen many distant relatives lately due to, well, sad circumstances, so inviting them for a happy celebration made sense.  And anyway, who doesn’t love Daniel?

With a couple of emails and assignments drawn up by my sister and I (undetected by Daniel) the party was set.  Sunday evening at Tanya’s house, gifts of 30 things, cake, ice cream, punch, appetizers, fun.  While at church on Sunday my mom gave Daniel a note that said they were going to go for a drive around 6:00 that evening.  Daniel’s shy smiled appeared as he asked where they were going.  To my mother’s reply of “it’s a surprise” Daniel’s wheels started turning.

While everyone arrived, mom and a blindfolded Daniel sat outside in the car.  When it was time for the guest of honor to enter, he asked mom when he could take of the blindfold so he could walk up to 2 or 3 steps to Tanya’s door.  Who did we think we were fooling?  He knew it all along, but that did not damper the excitement of the evening.  He was thrilled!

We counted about 65 people in attendance which in turn lead to lots of presents!  Some examples of presents are:  30 soda cans, 30 fun size m&m’s, 30 gold $1 coins, 30 $2 bills, 30 ties, 30 bags of snack size chips, 30 christmas songs on CD, and many more.  All in all the party was a success.  Here is a little viewing pleasure of the moment he arrived…

I could go on and on and on about how great Marc’s mom is, how much she does for us, or how much the grandchildren love her, but this post is to thank her for one specific thing.  Take a look!

She made these great curtains and darling “Thomas” valences for Carson’s bedroom.  Although she completed them quite some time ago, we finally had time to put them up (Thanks Daddio).  Marc was waiting for Carson to clean his room before he put them up and yesterday was THE DAY.  I love the way these curtains dress up his room and bring more color in.  They are perfect.  His room feels cozy now and not so stark.  They also compliment the wonderful Thomas mural by Lucinda that we just can’t get enough of, so here’s a picture of that too.

I don’t know how much longer Carson will enjoy the innocence of his “Thomas” room, but for now I’ll take it!  Thank you Erma!  You’re the best!

I am not a crafty person.  After many years of unsuccessful tries which turned into crafts gone bad, I’ve become comfortable with that statement.  With that said, I will, upon occasion, put something together that can be considered a “craft”.  There is a big “but”  with that though.  I have to thoroughly think out each step in the crafty process to determine if I have the patience and talent to pull it off.  If there is any portion of putting it together that I don’t think I can do without it looking horrible, I decide it’s not worth my time or money so I just won’t do it (that’s what Lucinda was for, but she moved far, far away- never to craft for me again-sigh!).  Anyway, I noticed a cute Thanksgiving “craft” on a blog I frequent (eighteen25.blogspot.com) & after much thought, decided I could do it.  Without further adieu, here is the unveiling…(with a little help from “vanna”).

If you can’t tell exactly what it is, it’s a handprint turkey from each member of our family.  For FHE on Monday, we all traced one of our hand’s and colored our turkey.  I have put everyone’s name under their turkey and included the year so we can look back and remember the size of the kids’ hands on Thanksgiving 2011.

So if you’re crafty or not and want a new Thanksgiving decoration please feel free to copy me and “get your craft on”.