Our long Thanksgiving weekend

Good day, blog friends.

{insert great big giant happy face right here}

♥

I hope this blog post finds you well and happy this morning. We had such a great Thanksgiving weekend celebrating gratitude with people we love. I was a bit preoccupied with preparing food so I don't have as many photos as I would like to have for this weekend recap. I'll share what I do have though, and you'll get the jest of our weekend. :o)

My sister (Valerie) and her family arrived Wednesday evening and she brought us some housewarming gifts. Among the gifts was this cute blue serving tray she found on Etsy. LOVE it! I used it for different purposes throughout the weekend. So fun!

We waited until just before Thanksgiving dinner was served to set up our tables. My sister-in-law, Liz, did some quick work finding a napkin-folding-tutorial on Pinterest! And my 7-year old nephew, Stone, had colored some placemats to use. He wrote what he was thankful for on each placemat. "I am thankful for loving you guys."

Random corner of our house with my quick attempt at...well...I won't even call it chalkboard "art." It served its purpose though, with wifi info and our hashtag for the day. (Those wings at the top of the photo are some that my father-in-law bought back from the Philippines when he was serving in the Marine Corp back in the 1960's.)

And now some random food photos:

Mmmmm... My sister makes these yummy stuffed mushrooms that I was really looking forward to! We had them for appetizers before our Thanksgiving dinner and I grabbed the final four and tucked them away for selfish reasons. I thoroughly enjoyed them the following day as a snack.

I spent a chunk of time on Saturday morning bagging up leftovers and freezing packages of turkey, ham, brownies, and pumpkin pie. Here's what I did with my sister's leftover asparagus that was topped with crumbled bacon and feta cheese:

I used six leftover dinner rolls, four eggs with a little milk/salt/pepper, the leftover asparagus/bacon/feta cheese. Mixed it, baked it for about 20 minutes, and we enjoyed a really yummy breakfast on Saturday morning! I am pretty proud of myself for repurposing (and freezing) all those leftovers this year. We'll see if I actually bust out the frozen turkey at all, or if the entire bag will be tossed this time next year.

And last but not least, my people:

The best part and biggest blessing is that we got to spend time with this amazing group of people. I love that our family is growing and changing. This year we added Carrie's beau, Andrew, and his son (little man with his hand on my arm ♥), and my step-dad brought his lady-friend, Natalia. There we are, in all our glory, cluttered countertop and all. My favorite photo of the entire weekend (thanks to Carrie!).

I just checked the calendar and counted. Christmas is three weeks from this Friday! Gulp. And how?!?! I'm making the choice to remain perfectly calm. Well...I'm making the choice to remain as calm as possible. Time to start prioritizing and letting go of some items that may not be totally necessary.

I'm off to hit my yoga mat and then make my way through this work week. Super fun news is that the office where I work is closed for two weeks around Christmas, so there's some vacation time in my near future. :o)

If you live on a piece of the planet where Thanksgiving was celebrated last week, I hope your holiday was as wonderful as ours. And regardless of where you live on this planet, I am grateful that you visit my blog from time to time and read my words.

Happy holiday season, sweet friends!

♥

Thanksgiving Mandala ~ free coloring page

The last time we hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house, I had some coloring pages on hand for the kids to color. This year I wanted to do the same, but instead of turkeys or Pilgrims to color, I drew a Thanksgiving mandala, scanned it and printed out copies.

The space under the word GRATITUDE was intentionally left blank for journaling things we are grateful for. I left a little space under the word FAMILY as well.

My photos are a little wonky for this post, but my list of priorities does not allow for re-doing these shots, so I'm going to just put these on here and share a link to the full mandala page if you'd like to grab a copy of your own.

You'll notice, as you color, that my lines are not perfect. You'll notice a few lines that could have been smoother, but honestly, this is the thing I love about hand drawn mandalas! The imperfections make them more perfect - for me anyway! ;o)

You can get your free copy by clicking here.

And with that, I'm signing off until next week.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

With love and gratitude,

♥ Deb

30 Days of Thankful ~ Week Four

I'm participating in Cathy Zielske's 30 Days of Thankful during the month of November, and I'm linking to her blog today. The templates I used for my photos and journaling are Cathy's design.

You can see my week one pages here.

Week two here.

Week three here.

♥

A Thanksgiving History Recap

Imagine this: It's September in the year 1620 and you are one of 102 passengers onboard a small ship called "The Mayflower." You leave Plymouth, England in search of religious freedom and the lure of prosperity and land ownership in the New World. "It's gonna' be so awesome there!" you convince yourself.

 

 

Your ship finally drops anchor at the tip of Cape Cod - way north of your original destination of the mouth of the Hudson River, but hey, the anchor is dropped and that in itself is a relief after 66 looooong days at sea. It's November now, and super cold, so you and the rest of your travel mates remain on the ship throughout the winter.

 

 

When spring is sprung, you're one of the lucky passengers that survived winter. Half of your travel mates perished during the harsh winter months, dying from exposure, scurvy and other diseases. So in March of 1621, those of you that remain decide to move yourselves off the ship and onto shore.

 

 

In a random act of crazy luck, you guys meet a Native American named Squanto. Squanto is about to become your New World hero because not only does he speak English {he'd been previously kidnapped by an English sea captain, spent some time in London, came back to his homeland...}, but he knows how to grow corn, extract sap from maple trees, and he's got some mad fishing skillz.

 

You and your homeys hang with Squanto, and by November of that year you throw a big ol' party to celebrate your first harvest of corn! You invite some Native American allies that show up to the party with five deer, and you guys celebrate and eat for three whole days!

 

 

You work hard, you play hard, and a couple of years later (in 1623) you host another feast to celebrate the end of a drought. Celebrating rain and a bountiful harvest on a regular basis is starting to sound like a great idea...

 

Around 1827, this writer chick named Sarah Josepha Hale starts writing letters and basically hounding all the politicians she can find. She writes countless editorials for her magazine, and tons of letters until she finally gets the attention of Abraham Lincoln, our country's 16th President. In 1863, President Lincoln signs a proclamation designating the last Thursday in November as a day to "heal the wounds of our nation" - a day to focus on the act of being grateful. {PS: Sarah Josepha Hale also wrote the children's nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb" which I think is totally cool. I bet she would have been an awesome blogger!}

 

In November 2013, you're invited over to our house for what is now a traditional American Thanksgiving feast. We'll cook a turkey, and Doug might even have deer meat. Carrie will bring mashed potatoes and a one-cup salad, and I'm making the trimmings: gravy, cornbread dressing, green beans, my mom's yeast rolls, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Our feast won't last for three days, but maybe the leftovers will, and we'll celebrate and give thanks for our good fortune.

 

 

I hope this day finds you surrounded by people you are thankful for,

and I also hope it includes pumpkin pie.

Happy Thanksgiving my friends!

♥

 

♥ Historical information contained in this post was found here.
♥ I made this gratitude banner a few years ago out of burlap and felt. The letters were added with brown acrylic paint stenciled through the negative image of some chipboard letters I have.

A Weekend of Food

It's the Monday before Thanksgiving and I already want out of the kitchen.

♥

How's that for an honest start to my weekly weekend recap? Man, I feel like I was in the kitchen all weekend! And then yesterday afternoon we celebrated Thanksgiving with Doug's family and had a full on meal complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie... I really think I could go for a few days without another bite to eat - I'm still full this morning!

 

Friday after work I did a major grocery store run, and Saturday morning I started cooking. I experimented with making a potato frittata that morning and it turned out to be way more work than it was worth. I really should have followed some sort of recipe...next time! I baked a pan of cornbread to be used for my mom's dressing recipe this Thursday, and I made a Jell-O cheesecake so it would be set for Sunday.

 

Yesterday morning I chopped up the leftover potato frittata and made the yummiest breakfast burritos ever. Not wanting to waste the remaining ingredients, I made six burritos and wrapped and froze them for future breakfasts/camping trips for Doug.

 

Then I made a broccoli rice casserole, and some really cute penguin shaped appetizers (I'll show you those on Wednesday), and I baked three (already made/frozen) pumpkin pies. {I know, Margaret, I know...} Doug helped by washing dishes here and there which was awesome, and now I need a week off of my feet and aching knees.

 

Anyway! Yesterday afternoon/evening found us at Doug's brother's house with all of the stuff I'd been making in our kitchen and all of his family. I love those times when we are all together and I had plans to take a bunch of photos but got busy helping with food and only got a few. And most of the photos I took were a bit grainy so I made them black and white and will share a few of them here...

 

 nephews

 nieces

my amazing SIL, Janet

 

It was a rainy/cloudy/chilly weekend around here, and that's really putting me in the holiday spirit. I do think my spirit needs to stay out of the kitchen this week {don't worry, Doug and Carrie, we'll do it again on Thursday} and my holiday body needs a trip to the gym. And we're just getting started!

 

This will be a short work week for us, and we have a four-day weekend on the horizon. You know I have all kinds of happy plans...

 

I hope your piece of the planet is a happy one today!

See you tomorrow...

xo

♥



30 Days of Thankful ~ Week Three

I'm participating in Cathy Zielske's 30 Days of Thankful during the month of November, and I'm linking to her blog today. The templates I used for my photos and journaling are Cathy's design.

 

You can see my week one pages here.

And week two here.

♥

30 Days of Thankful ~ Week Two

Happy Friday, everyone! I'm participating in Cathy Zielske's 30 Days of Thankful during the month of November, and I'm linking to her blog today. Oh, and the templates I used for my photos and journaling are Cathy's design.

 

You can see my week one pages here. 

♥

30 Days of Thankful ~ Week One

A few notes:

♥ I'm participating in Cathy Zielske's "30 Days of Thankful" during the month of November, and Fridays are the link-up day. So during November, I'll be using Fridays for posting the pages I've completed. {Cathy's templates were used for my photos today.}

♥ Doug has been away on a hunting trip since October 31st, but he's coming home today (YAY! Thankful!) so don't think I'm ignoring him in the mix of people and things that I am oh so thankful for.

♥ And I'll end my "30 Days of Thankful" posts with a Quote for Friday:

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments

when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

~ Thornton Wilder