Thanksgiving Week

I made these last weekend. A Close To My Heart Consultant, Caron Barnard, gets credit for coming up with this cute idea. The tall ones are made with Rolo candies and the small ones with Lifesavers. Their darling hats are the cut off fingers from Dollar Store mittens. My mom gave me tiny jingle bells I glued on top and I used a rubber stamp from CTMH for their faces, just coloring in their carrot noses. I tied two pieces of bright red yarn for their scarves, and three black ink dots for their buttons. I just thought they were so cute and easy. I'll be handing these out to the children in my neighborhood,  and the ones in my new calling.

I'm still Compassionate Service Leader but now I'm also working with this guy as Webelos Leaders. We're excited. We've got five boys and have Dec. planned out. MyMike is the leader and I'm his assistant. Perfect!

I may cook the turkey, but he's the chief carver, using that electric knife deftly. Notice the pile on the counter? MyGirl has been filling her top loader Recipe book with lots of recipes. She's becoming a great cook!

I started next year's 2 page/month photo album. January is done.

One of my mother's oft-used phrases when I was growing up was, "Many hands make light work." Well, this year I really appreciated the fact that LittleBuddy, MyGirl and BigBuddy all helped make Thanksgiving dinner. The youngest two were at the cannery with me on Tuesday and after having my big boy bring all the heavy boxes down to the basement I went down and foolishly tried to put them up high on the shelf where I could find room. . . only I dropped one box as I was moving things around and when I went down to pick it up, I did a number on my back.

So, bless their hearts. For the next three days they picked up everything on the floor I dropped and were all my wonderful sous chefs. BigBuddy peeled and cut the sweet potatoes and took care of the green beans and made several runs to the pantry and basement for me. LittleBuddy mashed the sweet potatoes and added all the special ingredients we love then helped with the mashed potatoes. MyGirl made the cranberry sauce, took over the stuffing, after I cut the vegetables and helped with the rolls, setting the table, and dishes at the end with her dad. I could never have done it without them!

Mom and Dad were with my brother's family in Nashville.  I had asked a couple of families to come over but they all had company coming to town, and then I just felt that it was going to be just fine to just be us, and in truth, it was a very special Thanksgiving to have my children pitch in so much and be so loving and helpful to me. Love and appreciate them all!  And now they know they can do all the work it takes to pull off the biggest meal of the year. Can't wait to see Cowgirl in less than a month too. She's a wonderful cook on her own and I love being in the kitchen with her too. Miss her so much! And, I'm feeling much better this weekend. It just took four full days to let things settle back into place - Such is life!