Happy Thankgsgiving!

THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have had a wonderful day with those you love!  I ended up hosting this year's family get together and it was a special one as all members were in the same place at the same time which hasn't happened in a couple of years.  It really was fun seeing how much the little ones had grown and to catch up with what everyone is doing these days.  After watching the report on the Today Show on the Thanksgiving calories consumed I had a plan for eating this year so as not to over indulge.  I skipped any tasting beforehand and I chose only to eat the things I don't normally cook throughout the year.  I came away from the table feeling very good about my choices.  Thankfully my tooth I broke was permanently fixed yesterday so I didn't have to worry about losing an appliance in my mouth while eating.

I made the time on Saturday to cut out and make a quilt as you sew runner that would fit my entire island.  I used up my stash of French General fabrics and lined it with a thermal cotton batting so all the hot dishes could be placed on it instead of pulling out a variety of trivets.  The completed size is 35 1/2 " by 72".  It was the smartest thing I could have done to simplify.  It was so easy to just move dishes around to make room.  I highly recommend making one to use for large gatherings.    I used the tutorial from Missouri Star Quilt to learn the technique.  

I couldn't resist this photo of the sweet potatoes.  They turned out really yummy this year!

You can see the island is rapidly filling up with foods.

This is the "oh the last bite of french silk pie is gone" look.

Okay, so I'll just get cleaned up.

He is either going to take another bite of his pumpkin bar or is going to squish it in his hands.  Tough call as the look on his face says it could go either way.

SNOW - YIPPEE!

We had a dusting of snow here Tuesday night into Wednesday night.  Officially I think it was a couple of inches but it seemed much less than that to me. 

It did require a bit of shoveling on my part on Wednesday morning and this morning so I at least got some good exercise.  

A YEAR IN THE MAKING

Just like my photo taking trip with my SIL that was scheduled in November 2013 for 2014 my shopping trip for holiday decorations with my brother was scheduled in December 2013 for November 2014.  We have been looking forward to it all year and we settled on Monday this week for this year's trip.  We enjoyed seeing so many decorated trees in the shop and there were so many fun snow globes, music boxes, animated decor, and lighted items.  I know we checked out every single item they had as we were in this store for 2 1/2 hours just looking.  There really was a ton to see.

On our way home we pulled off the highway into Pella for a trip to Jaarsma Bakery to pick up Tuesday's breakfast.  It was a sight to behold all the pastries, cookies and candies.   It was a day filled with so much laughter and catching up and can't wait for our 2015 trip.

Well, off to put a few stitches in my current project.