Thanksgiving Day

 

November 24, 2011

Our friends began to arrive… and I put Deanna to work!  ;D

 

I missed getting a picture of the meal buffet, but here’s dessert…

 

It was about 60F here, which is unusual for the end of November(!) ~ the kids had a great time outside before and after dinner!

             

 

wrestling

 

     

 

shooting guns {and picking up the empty shells}

     

 

playing with Luci

    

            

 

feeding the cattle {picking up corn off the ground, piece by cracked piece!}

  

         

      

 

throwing the football around in the hayfield {with some sunshine}

       

 

Inside we had a few table games while watching the Packers play

  

 

…and Emily helped wash more dishes!

 

 

               

 

{king of the mountain outside}

    

 

Tim entertained the little ones with “Zaccheus Was a Wee Little Man”

    

 

And then someone found the balloons!

 

               

                        

  

          

   

 

We are having some fun!

 

Snacking & playing games {even the cheese slicer is fun}

   

   

   

{watching Kate make another pumpkin pie ~ Can’t leave until it’s out of the oven!}

another glimpse into our November

 

Nov 16 ~ Meet the mighty Packer warriors?

 

Nov 17 ~ Helping with a small batch of apple sauce ~

  

 

Nov 19 ~ If you recall, Tim took me to Des Moines for a quick get-away Friday night and all day Saturday.  That left the kids at home.  Here’s the Cattleman & the Popper cooking pancakes for their Saturday supper…

  

              

 

Nov 21 ~ Tim found leftover waffles in the freezer and served up his famous Waffle Dessert after supper.

 

Nov 22 ~ Here comes the BIG batch of apple sauce for Thanksgiving Dinner!  20 pounds of apples made about 8 quarts of yummy sauce.   I even forgot to add a little sugar.

                   

Tuesday night was also our soup & pie fellowship at church with a Thanksgiving service ~ the girls helped serve the sit-down dinner.

 

Nov 23 ~ Wednesday was the Official Cleaning Day.  It was late before we finished setting up tables to seat 29 of us.  {Baby Jessie made the true count of 30 on Thursday}  Amber’s pumpkins combined well with some raffia and candles in cranberries…

  

 

Nov 24 ~ Thanksgiving Day!  The candy corn was to represent the “Five Kernels of Corn” that might have been the Pilgrim’s daily ration the first winter.

           

 

                   

 

      

 

Meanwhile in the kitchen, the potatoes were a-peeling!

     

 

And Tim volunteered to lead the crew making the cherry and pecan pies I didn’t quite get to on Wednesday.

              

  

 

And soon our friends began to arrive!  More pictures in the next post….

Welcome to December

Checking my lists, and checking them twice... or thrice

• Sunday's budget meeting, then late supper out at Pancheros to celebrate the day {with the kids}of our 19th anniversary!
• Cyber Monday shopping {after an ALL-day Black Friday outing 10am-8:30pm}
• Cyber Tuesday?  And a trip with Tim to take the cattle to market.
• Cyber Wednesday?
• Sense the pattern?
• EOM reports
• Jeans to mend {for hire even}
• Yesterday was another Black Friday of sorts... DesMoines with Tim to pick up his new suits and do a little in-store shopping.  Home long enough to grab kids and cooler for a trip to Ames for piano, Wal-mart, Sam's, and other shopping/errands.
• Today was practice for tomorrow's cantata {after Tim chased the cows back into their proper place}, an oil change, and a little shopping while we were out in the rain...Ironing, more accounting work, burned broccoli for soup.
• Shopping online EVERY day?!  Seems like I've done a few other things... like laundry, reading a few blogs, thinking about a daybook, but not doing it.  Can you see why?  
• I *did* indulge in a few hours of vacation reading Monday - Let's see, it was Coming Home by David Lewis.  It must have been Thursday that I plowed through the pile of school papers with my red pen.  I also did some of our history reading aloud a few mornings at breakfast.
• One of these days I will upload the bzillion pictures from my camera too... so much going on to record for the memory book.

End of substitute daybook.  And good night!

{after the pathetic Badger game is over}  It's a Wonderful Life is on too ~ and much better!  : )