Family History on a Tree

As we were decorating the Christmas Tree yesterday, Abby observed that our tree represents our family history. The ornaments hanging from its (admittedly faux) branches remind us of different people and different times in our lives.

The angel at the top of our tree was given to Abby from Brian's mother. She used to have an entire tree decorated with angels like this one.

Jacob picked out this ornament when he was about five years old. It reminds me of when he was little(er).

Hannah's baby ornament. All of our children have a precious moments ornament from the year of their birth.

We made these ribbon candy ornaments last year for our own tree and for gifts. The kids had so much fun making these.

This was my "baby ornament" and has hung on my tree for a long, long time.

An ornament mom made one year out of matchboxes.

An angel ornament mom made. Our trees were always decorated in red and white.

An ornament mom made for me to commemorate my favorite toy.

Each of the kids have a tree in their bedrooms to decorate with their own ornaments.

Though it's hard, I do not interfere with their decorating efforts. When they were toddlers, all the ornaments ended up on two or three branches! Now that Hope is older, she is starting to spread them around a bit.

Wreaths to hang on the (inside) doors.

Our nativity set from my childhood. This set has a story behind it which always reminds me that people are more important than things.

The nativity set from Brian's childhood, given to us two years ago.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our pinecone turkeys

Ready to eat!

No children's table this year- but the three littlest ones still managed to get in a lot of giggling and silliness!

We played games after dinner.

Mrs. H. made this beautiful table runner for me. She is an excellent quilter and we always enjoy talking about sewing!

The other family who we get together with could not be with us this year. We missed seeing them! Since we still had a 20 pound turkey, we'll have lots of leftovers for awhile.

Fall Weekend on the Windswept Plains

Brian worked (again) on our septic system so hopefully the alarm won't go off every. single. winter. day after a load of laundry or two.

The girls continue in their love of all things cake decorating by playing with fondant.

A rose made of fondant.

I decorated a wreath for the front door

and nine others for the outside windows. Hopefully these will get hung this week. We used these at our house in Littleton (with just the bows and lights) and it seemed like a good idea to decorate a bit outside this year.

More outside decorations.

We found some bulbs on clearance and thought we'd try planting bulbs again. The last time I tried, NONE of the 100 or so I planted came up. I know I'm not a gardener, but good grief. Not ONE bulb made it. I think there is some kind of conspiracy...

Notice the claims of "Easy to Grow". We'll see about that!

Playing outside during the planting episode.

Lucy

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite children!

Hannah's favorite gift- the Tasha Tudor Auction Catalog- full of pictures of her historical clothing collection that went for sale this month. Hannah is running a fever in this picture, but still managed to look pleasant for the photo.

Jacob in (most of) his gifts- snow pants, snow boots and heavy duty snow gloves. He also received slippers, which made him most happy. He's a guy who is all about comfort!

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

Since this is our year to host Thanksgiving for our "holiday family"(two other families that we have been getting together with for the past ten years or so for Easter and Thanksgiving), we are making sure we have everything in order. Since none of us are too crazy about cranberry sauce (but a few of our guests are), we found this at Williams Sonoma. It looks like it will be good- we may even try it! Brian also bought a new meat thermometer since ours died last year.

We are making "turkey" decorations for the place card holders. We need to locate nuts for the head, though. I went to two craft stores looking for acorns or chestnuts but they didn't have any. Ebay offers acorns in one pound increments, a bit much for what I need. Anyone out there have any nuts like acorns in their natural state??

I'm going through our serving pieces and place settings to make sure it's all clean and ready to go.

A trial run last night to measure the length of the table cloth before I sew the edges and to make sure we like the way things will look. I found the burgundy fabric (4 yards for this long table) for $2.24 a yard at the craft store.


Thanksgiving Checklist:

24 pound free-range turkey, on order at the health food store

Cranberry sauce (see above)

Stuffing- need to do a trial run on the new recipe

Mashed Potatoes and gravy
Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Coffee

Possibly make sugar cookies for the kids to decorate

For table: roasted almonds, nuts, chocolate candies


Guests to bring:
salad
rolls
vegetable dish
relish tray
pies

We are enjoying a visit from cousin/nephew Doug, who is on his way back home after finishing his time in the military. We haven't seen him since he enlisted, so it has been fun hearing of his adventures!

Play Ball!

Dogpile on the Windswept Plains

The kids have enjoyed cousin Doug's visit. Their game of baseball turned into a dogpile a few times. I think poor Doug will be sore when he leaves!
(Please note that Hope dressed herself this morning...)

Ready for church

In case you thought things were dull right now...

Life this past week has not been what we had anticipated. On Monday, Hope dropped -and broke- a mercury thermometer (yes, the kind you're not supposed to have anymore) by the bed. In cleaning it up, I found mercury mostly on the hardwood floor, but also a tiny bit on the back of the bed and on the toy box which doubles as a night stand. I never did find the glass "tip" of the thermometer which has led to our current household project: tearing up the floor so we can get access under the heater where there was a crack where glass or mercury could conceivably fall.

The "before" shot

How the room currently looks.

If one were to google "what to do when a mercury thermometer breaks" you will find all kinds of articles on how your home is now a toxic waste site. In cleaning up this mercury, you should wear old clothes, which you will be throwing out along with anything that could have possibly come in contact with the mercury. If we had carpeting, the advice would be to remove it and have it replaced. The articles are filled with stories on how entire families have been poisoned by a single thermometer and small children have been forever harmed.

But yet, I remember playing with mercury from a broken thermometer- my mother showing me how. In our home. Without throwing our clothes away afterwards.

When I called poison control, the lady on the other line advised me to clean it up the best I can and get on with life.

Which now includes tearing up the floor in order to make sure we got it all from around the heater area. Sigh.

On The Back Porch

The dog resting in the planter boxes. Anything she can crawl or sit on, she will!

Artwork

Hannah has been making bookmarks to give as gifts. Here are a few of the black and white sketches. Now she will copy and color them before she wraps them up.

It's That Time of Year Again...

When one's home is deluged with catalogs for the Christmas season. Today we received a catalog that is new to us- Hammacher Schlemmer, which says it has been in business for 159 years.

Apparently I had too much time on my hands this evening, as I leafed through the pages and discovered things I never knew existed:

The Animatronic Singing and Talking Elvis- a deal at $299.95 Sings eight of Elvis' most acclaimed songs. 37 monologues recorded from interviews AND a karaoke feature so you can sing along with Elvis! Includes a remote control!

The Rotating Dual Disco Ball for $59.95

Golf-Ball Finding Glasses- they block out 80 percent of dark colors to help you find your wayward golf balls.

The Interactive Robotic Panda- the scariest looking toy I've ever seen. Frighten your children for only $139.95

But, after sifting through the germ killing light wands, thermal blankets and action sports hands- free cameras, I did find one item that piqued my interest:

THE SNORE RELIEF WRIST BAND- $79.95
"...It uses electrical signals that gently(!) stimulate the median nerves located at the inner wrists without waking you...and when the device detects snoring, it releases a signal that gently(!) stimulates the body to shift position, stopping snoring. "

So, I guess this giant wristwatch looking thing zaps you on your arm whenever you snore! I can just imagine the joy on Brian's face when I buy him this for Christmas...

Snow on the Windswept Plains...

Jacob made a snowman out back today, named Pinocchio.

We had to brush the snow off the trees since it was a heavy, wet snow- about 6 inches total in our area.

Hannah took her first standardized test yesterday- the PSAT. She even entered a public school gymnasium too!! :) This was a good experience for her, learning test taking skills. She also now realizes that a lot of algebra will be in her future...