Gobble Til you Wabble

We had lots of fun hanging out with the fam for Thanksgiving. We went to Robb's parents this year and had a grand time lounging about and stuffing our bellies.

This was the main activity of the weekend. Football games and Christmas movies were #1.

This was activity #2, wrestling with anyone who was willing to get on the ground and take the abuse. I believe this was Uncle Cameron.

Landon was thrilled with his turkey cookie. Can't you tell by the excited look on his face.

Addison was having a bit of a better attitude about her cookie. They loved the candy covered cookies.

Robb and I even got a wild hair and decided to get up at 3:00 am and join the crazies for good deals. We got most of our shopping done in one stop, but it took us 3 days to recover from lack of sleep. We both determined that we are too old to do Black Friday again. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving

It's that time of year again where we give thanks for all the many blessings and goodness we have in our lives. There is always much to be thankful for. Gratitude is a divine attribute that I am always striving to be better at each day.
We made it over the hill and through the woods to Grandmother's house, that is currently filled with wonderful smells and sounds of joy and laughter. We even got lucky this year and are having a white Thanksgiving.
We love sitting around the TV and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. All the songs floats and of course the Rocket's. Later all the football games will take over and there will be cheers of excitement at a touchdown pass, or boos at a fumble.

I am grateful and thankful for a wonderful family, a comfortable home, a patriotic country, and the Lord for all the blessing he bestows on my life. We would not be here today celebrating this wonderful day without those stalwart souls who wanted a better life and were willing to die for it. I am grateful for their sacrifices so that I can be here today.

So to all of you out there I wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving. I hope you have been as blessed as I have in my life. If you are feeling down, just take a look around at the blessings you have been given. God gives blessings to everyone, you just have to take a good look around. Love to all this holiday season.

Thanksgiving Gratitude

Well, Thanksgiving is here again. I am sitting in my parents house with the pumpkin pies baked and kids in bed. Sigh!

I am thankful for so many things this year. I am grateful for my family, for loving me even though I am crazy sometimes. For my dear Husband who is such a good man and takes such good care of all of us. I am thankful for and my kids, who keep me humble everyday and can make my heart melt with one little smile. I am also thankful for my friends who keep me grounded and sane when life gets to be too much. I am truly blessed and am grateful for all I have!

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. -Melody Beattie

A grateful heart is a beginning of greatness. . . . It is a foundation for the development of such virtues as prayer, faith, courage, contentment, happiness, love, and well-being. -James E. Faust

May your Thanksgiving be peaceful and filled with love, joy and no weight gain or indigestion.

Gobble Gobble Craft

I wanted to get this post done before Thanksgiving was over! These are some fun turkeys that I have been making off and on for quite a few years. My Mother-in-law, hi Carol Jean, sent me one a few years back and I just made up a pattern for it and took off. I love making these things because it is therapeutic to do hand work.

Supplies you will need:

Colored felt sheets- 6 for a large turkey, 5 for a small turkey

Cotton thread in cream or black

Poly-fil stuffing

Needle

scissors

black eyes

fall embellishments (ribbon, buttons, etc.)

Hot glue gun-glue sticks.

Here's the pattern for the turkeys, if you are so inclined to make a few for yourself. The felt sheets are very inexpensive. Be creative on your colors, I have used red, black, green, orange, and many others.

Lay your pattern on the felt and cut it out. Make sure to cut two of everything.


Next, blanket stitch around all the pieces, making sure to leave an opening for the stuffing. If you don't know how to blanket stitch I found a Blanket Stitch Tutorial on YouTube that was pretty good. It is a bit different than they way I do it, but it will get the job done.

This is the type of thread I use. It is a thick cotton and can be found near the yarn section of you local craft store.


After you stitch around each section, stop and fill loosely fiberfill, just make sure not to over stuff. You want your turkey to be soft and squishy. Finish stitching the section closed. When you have all the pieces stitched and filled. Hot glue them together so they stand on their own. Add the embellishments, don't forget to put on a nose and waddle. These are buttons, and I will cut the shank off to make gluing easier.

I just hand cut the nose and waddle, there is no pattern. You may think it looks terrible when you are cutting it, but when you put it on it will look fine. I glue them on also.

These are a couple samples I have done. You don't have too many embellishments on your turkey, it is personal preference. Have a ball and get crazy! Sorry the pictures aren't so great, my camera does not like to take pictures inside and the flash tends to make everything look possessed, so you have a nice Thanksgiving orange glow! Sorry, maybe Santa will leave me a new camera in my stocking! Hey, a girl can dream!

Stuffing the Bird or Ourselves!

We had such a great Thanksgiving Day. It was the Gardner's turn this year, but my mother-in-law was out of town with my sister-in-law because she had her baby. Imagine the nerve to have a baby around Thanksgiving! I am sure she was just making some serious room for more turkey! Just kidding! We love you Alli!

So, with everyone else out of town, we had my Father-in-law come down and spend the day with us. It was the most laid back Thanksgiving I think I have ever had. I didn't stress about my house being perfectly decorated or cleaned, that's the great thing about guys, they don't notice if you don't dust or clean around the toilet with a bleach covered toothbrush. They just want food and a couch to crash on after the feeding frenzy. We had the usual Thanksgiving fair potatoes, gravy, yams, rolls, cranberry sauce, jello, and of course turkey.

I braved having the kids help me with the pies the day before and I must admit that I cheated big time and bought store bought crust. That is a mistake I will not make again, even if it is easier with kids. It was the ugliest looking apple pie in the history of apple pies. I would show a picture of it, but I am sure it would have broken my camera had I gotten over my disgust enough to take a picture. I must say the filling was divine. So I just picked around the rubber crust and ate the filling. That is my favorite part anyway.

After stuffing ourselves the kids talked Grandpa into playing the Wii. Even though he had never heard of a Wii, he still managed to kick some serious kid bootie in bowling. By the time he left he was almost to John McEnroe status in tennis. (minus the sassy mouth, my father-in-law is not what I would call sassy. Witty is more like it.)


While all the boys were playing games, Addison and I set up a puzzle and started working on it. 1000 piece puzzles are not the best idea with a 7 year old. She had lots of enthusiasm in the beginning, but I lost her before we even got the border complete. It is still sitting there, and I am not sure how long Logan will be able to resist playing puzzle confetti.


We can't wait for the leftover's! No leftovers taste as good as Thanksgiving leftovers.
All in all we had a blast and put the kids to bead early and started the Christmas season off with the traditional viewing of A Christmas Story, how can you resist Ralphie and his beloved Red Rider BB gun with the compass in the stock!