Thanksgiving Name Tag / Napkin Ring Craft

I miss you, dear blog -- Girl Scout cookie season seems to have taken over my life... It's coming to a close, and then I can hopefully get back in the swing of things! In the meantime, we had a lovely Thanksgiving with my mother-in-law (Grammy) and her sister (Cici) coming out to visit us for the long weekend. We had a great holiday with them, Grandpa & Gramby and my grandmother who recently turned 90.

The girls dressed in their little pioneer outfits (pioneer, pilgrim -- close enough to them, apparently!), everyone said the food was delicious, and the company was wonderful! We tried to make a turkey centerpiece craft with the girls but I was missing an essential item -- we'll work on finishing that up and then I'll post it in case anyone else is interested for next year. And hey, I'll have mine all ready to go for next year, myself! I did put the girls in charge of name tags which were very simple, but very cute. Just squares of construction paper with each person's name printed on them and cute foam Thanksgiving stickers stuck on each. We punched a hole in each, slipped a piece of twine through the hole and then tied it with bow around each person's napkin. Very simple, very cute, very festive!

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving -- it really is my favorite holiday -- all about family togetherness, the calm before the Christmas rush!

Me & Strawberry...

While I was making dinner just now, my little girl was watching me and she said, "Mommy, Strawberry Shortcake can do all of the things that you can do! She can cook, she can drive, she can pour herself water, and she can decorate her home!" She said it with such admiration that I am going to take it as a compliment! Maybe Strawberry can step in for one of these nights when I am too tired to make dinner! :)

Catching Up

Life's been pretty busy around here, as I am sure it is for everyone! We had a wonderful Halloween -- I'd love to share pictures, however my beloved camera is not working! I can see the pictures on my camera, but cannot upload them to my computer! I am going to try to take the memory card to the store and see if they can put the pictures on a cd for me. New camera is first on my Christmas list this year! This year we celebrated Halloween with a trip to the Genesee Country Village for some fun activities and trick-or-treating. It was a beautiful autumn day -- great weather -- and we spent a lovely day with our friends and their daughters. My family voted unanimously that we will be doing that again next year! On Halloween, we all went over and had dinner at our friends' home and then headed out to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood. We usually trick-or-treat in our own neighborhood, but last year our friends joined us and we decided to alternate every other year. It's fun to go with a group like that -- the kids had a good time with their little friends and it was nice to see the decorations in another neighborhood. We came across one family whose son is now too old to trick-or-treat and so they were all bundled up, sitting in lawn chairs in the front yard with a roaring fire in their outdoor fire pit. They had a table set up and in addition to candy for the kids, they were offering donut holes and hot cider to all who passed by!

This past weekend was all about cookies -- I helped to unload the big tractor trailer with all of the cookies for our town's Girl Scout troops, then we loaded up the cookies for my Daisy troop, and then unloaded them at our house. All four of us worked to bring the cookies in -- even my little 5-year-old! (Although, she would only carry the "Lemonade" cookies, because those were her favorites!) I spent Friday night and part of Saturday sorting cookies, then Sunday I had my Daisy troop meeting and the parents came to pick up their girls' cookies. Then we were off to pick up my 10-year-old's cookies! On Sunday, my youngest thought I should make some Snickerdoodles... I suggested that we save that for another day when we were not already so overrun with cookies!! And what did we do as a project at my Daisy meeting? Why the "Pilgrim Hat Cookies", of course!! ;)

Today's big excitement at our house was the installation of a new boiler -- woo hoo! It cost a small fortune -- I feel like taking a picture of it and putting it on this year's Christmas card -- and we scrimped and saved for it, but it will be worth it to know that our old boiler is not going to give out on us this winter! We've limped along the past two winter's and had to have the old one repaired, spur of the moment when we've found ourselves without heat! The installer showed up at 7:30 this morning and was banging away on something in the basement -- my little one, who is not a fan of noise, said, "Tell him to stop doing that!" And I said, "Honey, we are paying him to do that!" Oh. My husband was off today and when I got home from work, my little girlie came down to the basement to show off the new boiler -- she showed me how shiny and clean it is, where the new "clock" (pressure gauge?) is -- she's very excited!

Now we can move on to the next big exciting thing -- Thanksgiving and a visit from Grammy & Cici (my mother-in-law and her sister)!! We are very excited to have them join us for Thanksgiving for the first time! The decorations are up and I am already looking through recipes to decide on the perfect menu.

Are you getting ready for the holidays? What are you planning for this great, family holiday?