Giving Thanks

At first we didn't think we were going to get to spend time with family on Thanksgiving. Our NGFs have some added responsibilities during a covid crisis at work, so their plans to travel went caput. Of course, the only logical conclusion is to have Thanksgiving together! We had a three-day window depending on if their concert got canceled, if we could reschedule an appointment we had, or if my brother decided to come down to my mom's house--which she just sold, btw!

I don't feel the need to super clean when our NGFs come over, but the house was a bit on the iffy side (as you saw, or will see depending on the order in which you read these posts, before). Buck, on the other hand, decided that only a drill with a scrub brush attached could make the proper dent in the kitchen backsplash polishing! It seriously looks SO much better! I just was surprised more tiles didn't fall off, that's a been a thing lately.

Here are the snacks . . . our NGFs' little blondie ate almost the entire bag of displayed snow peas on her own; that's saying a lot when delicious Christmas sweet Chex is sitting right there in a nut and nut-free double option! Also, Caelan made her amazing fresh Artisan bread. Gabby made orange sherbet salad. Caelan made sweet potatoes. Graysen requested stuffing (not in the bird). Caelan requested my NGF's cheesy potatoes . . . there was no shortage of yumminess for this Thanksgiving feast! Buck made the MOST amazing smoked turkey ever. My NGF said she "hates turkey" and even she went back for three helpings because it was so, so good!

Graysen helped the little girls fill their plates, that was pretty sweet of him!

We attempted to extend our seating to accommodate 15 in generally the same space. Under the blue cloth is my fainting couch, under the green cloth is the classroom table, and Caelan and G$ are sitting on the classroom bench. Make it work, right?!

Hot apple cider with soaked mulling spices--yum! I totally forgot about the sparkling cider I planned to serve with dessert (pecan pie and pumpkin cheese cake that Buck brought home, plus little chocolate pudding pies our NGFs brought). Every drop of the cider was gone by the night's end. And speaking of the night's end, I'm glad we got all the kids corralled for a quick picture before they headed home. I think we've spent most of the major holidays together, and birthdays, and vacations this year. We're very thankful God put these friends in our lives!

Oh, and after everyone left, we broke open the at-home escape room box that we ordered online! The company accidentally sent two, which made it a crazy good deal, and we were able to share the duplicate with our youth intern and her husband the tech/design guy at church while they were covid-quarentining. The puzzles were fun to solve together, and Graysen was more involved than he looks :) It took us a couple of hours, but we successfully returned the missing Stanley Cup to Toronto!

On Thanksgiving, we packed up the kids and the dogs (different dog this year--last year's picture is of a well-behaved Newton smiling at the camera, there's a little difference between a service-dog-in training and Miss Muriel, lol ;)

At my mom's house, my brother introduced his very dangerous for anyone over 40 balancing toy :) I chose to use it like G$ is demonstrating later in the photos.

My sparkling cider came to good use at mom's . . . she even had pretty glasses for everyone to drink out of! Even the boy with the face (and his dad's face behind him is even better, hee hee :)

I had my oldest younger brother snap a picture of us, since we don't get that opportunity very often. I said, "Just push the white button on the screen." He said, "I know how to take a picture with a cell phone." And then every picture had his finger in the bottom left corner, lol! This one is very cropped, but hey, we're all in it. Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmassy Things

Shoebox gathering and boxing was an expected mix of super busy and super just sitting around chatting :) The boys' friend's parents are in charge of the process this year, and oddly enough, this particular day was the day their son decided he'd like to pitch in and help :) This definitely made our boys happy, as they'd mentioned about a dozen times they hoped Bk would be at church during our volunteer time (which was like four hours long). 

There were two very large drop offs and a few chances to see faces we haven't seen in ages; I even got to peek at a new baby I'd been hoping to meet in person. I think we had more than 200 boxes come in during our scheduled time, and more than 1,000 collected total during the week! Pretty awesome! Praying those boxes full of small gifts, toys, and the truth of Jesus make a huge difference in the lives of children and teens around the globe.

Buck is all about the Christmas lights this year! This was on a scouting trip for more :) I think this tree is the cutest, but couldn't imagine spending $135 on it. I took a future-reference picture as Brennen brainstormed how to make me an at home version on the cheap.

My cutie, cutie shimmer chicks and mama chicken! I've had my eye on these Tractor Supply treasures for years. They are stupid expensive, but Buck caught a buy one get one half off sale and that made it all less jaw-dropping in price. I super luv them; they're the cutest! Muriel barked her head off at the ones up by the coop--she's so protective, lol! Caelan had to take her up and introduce her, let her sniff them and such. She was completely fine until the sun went down and the chicks lit up, and then a second introductory session had to take place, ha!

Graysen insisted we needed another blow up lawn ornament, so the cute moose on the tail end of the picture line up is our guy! He needs a name . . . anyone have ideas?

The kids always love the bloopers from our attempts at Christmas card photos :) I'm not sure if they love me posting them quite as much, ha! We also had a few, *business up top, pandemic wear on the bottom* like all the commercials poke fun at on television. Who doesn't wear a bow tie and dress shirt with athletic shorts?

One pandemic bummer is that we were hoping to attend our NGFs' kids' orchestra and band concert, but they closed it to the general public as new mandates came down the line. Thankfully, the broadcast most of it on the interwebs :) We spent a few enthralled hours trying to spot the kids we knew, as they combined all the musicians into one concert/festival. It was fun to hear them play for the first time!

Projects and Naps and Other Adventures

You know that ever-growing list of things you really SHOULD take care of, but will get to eventually? Well, eventually arrived! We got to some of them :) First up, my swing. My Frankensteined swing, now has a replaced cover in a *coordinating* fabric. You can't buy new cushions for swings and I don't want to buy a new swing. Buck and the boys helped hand sew alllllllll the way around the seat cushion. I'll take it! No more fluff and tatters swaying in the wind.

The hamster (who Brennen just noticed was missing from the laundry room today, a week after his departure from this world) previously chewed the bottom half of both the boys' curtains. I cut that set of tatters off to the window level, but it didn't look great. I attempted to even things up with some nice navy that Gabby picked out on our trip to the fabric store. So close, lol! The lines don't exactly line up, but it's kind of, almost, a little bit better :)

This was the living room during our projects . . . whoa. I discovered a huge bag of my brother CJ's t-shirts were among treasures we mined at my mom's during our fix-it visit. I cut them all to size, and Gabby made a quilt . . . that I forgot to take a picture of. But it looks nice! On Thanksgiving, he slept for 15 hours after working all night. I tucked it in around him while he was sleeping, so he awoke to the surprise. I'm told he liked it :) 

This is Gabby schoolwork humor :)

This is a muddy puppy who was not allowed in the house until she got spiffed up, ha! All that snow melted, btw. We're back to greenish grass. Crazy for almost December, right?!

Buck and G$ celebrated the eventual cleaning up of the living room by doing a synchronized nap routine. I don't know if either woke more rested, but they certainly seem to have some genetic napping position coordination in their DNA :)

The Wild Duck Adventure took place on a Saturday morning. A frantic text from a neighbor in her pajamas and winter coat/stocking hat . . . "There's an injured duck trapped in the neighborhood! Can your boys come get it?" Well, Brennen was sleeping, but Graysen took the small dog kennel from my mom's collection and we attempted to shoo the "hurt" duck into it--we even used bread crumbs, but apparently this particular duck had never been to a pond with generous carb-bearing people. We tried to corner loud quacking him and he FLEW away, lol! Not injured!! However five minutes later, he was in the texting neighbor's yard--and she is terrified of this duck. We involved the girls for Operation Wild Duck Adventure Part II. "I think he's taunting me," came the next text. "We've got this," was the gist of my reply :) And sure enough, the frustrating fowl decided the cage was no place to be and away he flew to freedom . . . I have video, but it's probably too large to upload here. He flew RIGHT in front of my camera, it was straight up hilarious. 

Here's my cute coop and the big ol' moon coming up over the hill. Muriel is keeping a careful eye on the neighborhood--you never know when that pesky duck might return!

Although our church chose not to meet in person this month, the girls are still busy with their worship team responsibilities. Caelan led this week, and did a very nice job! She puts a lot of time, planning, and practice into Sunday morning preparation :)

And here's a sneak peek/test shot, for an upcoming four-week children's ministry package the kids' team is putting together before services. If you've been watching regularly, you may want to tune in 15 minutes early for children's church and these two leading the littles in festive Christmas tunes!