Thanksgiving, A Day Full of Blessings

The official "kickoff" to the Christmas holidays was truly a wonderful day, starting with sleeping in late (9:30), then the four of us assembling the adorable little turkeys made with Oreos, Reese's cups, candy corn, and icing. We had fun making them together but mental note for next year, THEY DO NOT TRAVEL WELL. I could not figure out how to transport them. I had nothing large enough with a lid to put them in so I chose to line them up in a jelly roll pan - the first stop sign we stopped at sent the poor little things sliding right off the dish and on to the floor mat of the car. Only one casualty, though, and I was able to get them all back in their places and just made sure I held on to them for the 30 minute car ride. They were an absolute hit at my brother's house with all of the ADULT cousins thoroughly enjoying them. Most were just "gobbled" right up!

Dinner was phenomenal and there was much laughter throughout. I took lots of pictures, much to the kids' dismay, but I'm so glad I did. Some day, the kids will appreciate seeing these pictures.



A collage of the day.




My mom and dad. (They are 84 and 85 - and I don't think they look their age)




My sister-in-law and hostess.




My oldest brother.




I did miss my sister and her family, though, but we will be together at Christmas. She went to upstate New York to be with my brother-in-law's family as his sister is suffering from terminal brain cancer and they want to spend these precious holidays with her..







There was much dinner table discussion and one of things brought up was how funny parenting can be at times, and then this YouTube video came up and we all watched it together...and laughed...and thought how cool it was.







Yes, it was a day to truly count our blessings and be thankful most importantly for our family.

Halloween of the Past

Having spent all of Halloween night pretty much by myself, I had a lot of time to reminisce about how it used to be - my mother-in-law staying with us and doing the official counting of the number of trick or treaters, the kids hurrying through dinner so they could get dressed in their costumes, makeup application where needed, the appropriate bag/pillowcase selected, my makeup, my husband's makeup, hustling everyone out the door, etc. Last night, there was none of that - and I missed it.

So, I dug into one of the cabinets where I keep old photos and found these two pics - one of my daughter dressed as a witch and one of my son in a pumpkin patch. Both pics are from the fall of 1997.

I looked at the picture and started feeling sentimental about how things were, but then I realized that this is the normal course of events and this is how things are supposed to be and then I felt very happy that I did take all of those photos back then and that I did manage to capture those happy memories - forever.




It was a beautiful yet quiet evening - and I loved it!







A couple of photos from my search for autumn foliage a week ago. I will be getting more as the colors are really starting to appear in my neck of the woods now. Hooray!