Thanksgiving

Since we got married, I have been collecting Pfaltzgraff's Winterberry dishes. I love them. I never get to use them though, we don't really host Christmas meals. I hope to change that though. I'd like to have a friend dinner party some night here soon... We'll see how work scheduling and holiday planning goes. Anyway, this year I decided to go ahead and have the house decorated for Christmas for our Thanksgiving dinner. It turned out pretty nice.



My sister in law, brother in law, and nieces Katie & Julia brought their brand new beautiful, snuggly puppies to Thanksgiving. They are the sweetest things!! They didn't make a peep all day and spent most of their time being held by all of us, or cuddling next to each other in their little puppy playpen. They were just delightful. Jay and Missy asked if I'd take some pictures of "their girls... all of them!" and I was so happy to! Here is my favorite:



Aren't they lovely? I am so proud of these two sweet girls. I babysat Katie (L) a lot when she was little. I was in college and Greg would come over and we'd play "house". It was so fun. It's so hard to believe she will be 15 on January 24th... also the night of mine and Greg's first date. *yeah, he got a little in trouble for "working" ehem (going out with me) during a snowstorm when Katie was born* Oops... But, here we are 15 years later. Julia is such a sweet girl too. She gave Gabe a run for his money on wrestling moves on Thanksgiving. She is so very smart (both girls are). Julia is delightfully ornery, sweet, and all around fun to be with.

These girls are my 'first nieces'. I love them very much... and now I have new puppies to love on too!

Advent

I work with this woman who taught Sunday school for kids Gabe's age in the past. So, I thought I'd see if she had any neat ideas for Advent for Gabe. He is having such a hard time waiting for Christmas. His Daddy and I are so looking forward to enjoying Christmas with him.

Deanna (my co-worker) gave us this excellent idea... Make a paper chain for however many days are left until Christmas. Then, each night before bed Gabe gets to take one chain off the tree after we read this:

"Each evening after your prayers are said,

take off one ring. And hop in bed!

When only the candle is left to shine,

then you will know it's Christmas time!"

We gave Gabe a little battery-operated candle that he gets to have on in his room Christmas night. I hung the garland on the tree just so it'd be an easy place for all of us to remember to do it each night... not that Gabe will let us forget! I need to figure out a way to incorporate the real meaning of Christmas into it too... Maybe the candle is for Jesus' birthday.

Isn't this one of THE cutest almost - five year old's you've ever seen? Love him.

Homemade Chutney

Ok, I'm a little proud of myself on this one... I made my own chutney for Thanksgiving! Actually, the recipe was really easy! I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year and since I'll be working up until the day of, I thought I'd get this done, freeze it, and then thaw it the day before. Once less thing I have to worry about making the day of the meal. Defrost and warm in the microwave and we'll be good to go. The recipe even says its ok to freeze.

The aroma in my house was awesome! And, it tasted fantastic. I will definitely be making this every year I host. When I tried it, I could definitely imagine it with the turkey!

Today, we also picked up our organic turkey from the locker. Gabe has decided that he will affectionately call him "Nick". I also got the menu planned, as well as the dreaded trip to Walmart. I love cooking for Thanksgiving, but honestly this year I'm a little worried about pulling it off. Thankfully, our family will be here and none of them are picky or particular. They are all so laid back. They'll all grab an apron and help me through it!

I'm really thankful that my family and Greg's family can share Thanksgiving together. Not all families can do that. It sure makes our holidays so much easier and so special.

This time last year...

I found out that my job of 7 1/2 years would be ending due to my inability to go full time. I can't believe it's been a year since then... It seems like that happened so long ago. When that place comes to mind, I realize that I haven't let go of a lot of anger that I'm holding onto, so thankfully, I don't think about it that much.

I can't believe my life now! I am a "farmer" - I always like to tell my friend Grant this, to which he very calmly and sternly says, "You're not a farmer." As in, no more discussion on the matter. No, I'm not a farmer, but my life has certainly begun to revolve around farming. I am loving it. I love talking to the farmers when they come in, I really like the people I work with, and the organization is great. I really love seeing the setting of our community in a totally different light. I appreciate so much more how smart the farmers are, how each and every one have their own way of doing things, and how the community works together. I like how the job is part time full time, meaning I have a lot of work at one time, and then I have breaks of time where I can just be with my family.

Being involved in the community has become my favorite part of the job. I like knowing the farmers by name, stopping in at the bank or post office, and seeing a lot of people every day. I am committed to giving 110% to help these guys succeed. Learning a new job has also come with some difficulty for sure. I grew up on a farm and my dad was a farmer, but he didn't really ever talk much about his business. I think maybe he thought I wasn't interested. So, I have definitely had a lot to learn. Some days, I feel completely useless! But, other days things just seem to flow nicely.

Leaving Kahuna was a huge change for me... One I was really afraid of. However, I can look back and say I am grateful for everything I learned there and I am very thankful for where I am now. I hope to be doing this for a long time. I'm a farmer! :)

Off work & working

Today, I'm off work due to the rain we got this weekend. So, I thought it'd be a great day for me and Gabe to work on Christmas decorations. I know, I know, it's a little early. However, we're hosting Thanksgiving this year and I thought it'd be really nice to have the house all festive and bright. I love Christmas. I love how cozy my traditional-style house feels. I love the twinkling lights and I love the colors of red and green, silver and gold. I realize people like me get a lot of eye rolls, but it's a wonderful season and I want to enjoy it as long as I can!

Gabe and I have stayed in our jam-jams today and I have worked on dusting, moving furniture, and laundry so I can hopefully have the house nice and neat when Greg gets home. I love days off in the middle of working full time because you really appreciate all those hours during the day and really make the most of them! I feel like I'm jamming as much as possible into one day today.

Gabe really loved decorating his tree too. He did a great job! Love the pj's on the kiddo by the way... He looks so cute in his new Old Navy jam jams.

I just got these trees when I went shopping with my friends. I love them! Home Goods is an awesome store! I wish we had one closer to us.

These little cardinals have become one of my favorite Christmas decorations. I got them last year on clearance at Hobby Lobby after Christmas. The silver containers in the center were given to me by my brother.

I'm really sad this year because I can't put up my Christmas village. I have a beautiful Dept 56 village and we just don't have any large, flat space to put it up. It's probably a good year to skip it any way. I have a small Halloween/Fall village of just 3 houses that I put on a table in the hall. Gabe thinks its for his guys to play and hide in. I got that set several years ago at Kmart on clearance. I'm glad I tested that out with him this year instead of putting up my expensive village. I can just see Batman running through the snowy streets and it makes me cringe just thinking about it! Between now and next year, Greg and I are going to have to come up with some way to display it. I definitely don't want it just stored in my Christmas closet.

I definitely do not ignore Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving. So, here are a few things I am thankful for this holiday season:

1. My family - I am blessed beyond measure with a wonderful husband and son, an amazing extended family, and probably the best in laws a girl could ask for.


2. My friends - I truly love my friends. I feel like the luckiest in the friendship department. What a treasure to be able to completely be yourself without fear of rejection or judgement.


3. My home - the safety and comfort of a warm house, good food, and people to share it with.


4. My work - it's been a good harvest and a beautiful fall.


5. My salvation - Most importantly, I have been saved from my sin. I'm so thankful for the birth of a Savior, born in a manger.

Happy Thanksgiving and holiday season to you and yours!

hi

Yep, I'm back. I knew I'd probably do it. I'd probably return to blogging. Not that I have anything too interesting to say, but I've just really found that I miss it. I miss sharing my thoughts and having a little outlet. I miss talking to my peoples on the internet too!

If you know me in 'real life' you probably know that I have a terrible time making up my mind. I just ordered our Christmas cards tonight and it took me for freaking ever. I usually design my own, but this year I wanted to go with Tiny Prints. Their cards are amazingly gorgeous and they freakin' know it too. But, they are having a sale until tomorrow, so luckily, I was able to get my cards for 20% off. I still spent more than I wanted to, but spent about what I normally do every year. This year though, I'm cutting my card list down a bit. I'm tired of spending a bunch on cards and postage and decided to weed it down. And, I'm going to hand deliver a bunch of them as well. I'd really like to bake more this year, and may be able to with working a seasonal job, so cookies and cards will be nice! Gabe loves helping me bake, so this will be a great activity for us.

If you know me in 'real life' you probably don't know that I am in love with anything Pennsylvania Dutch. I know. Weird. Here's an example:

It started with a trivet that was given to me that originally belonged to my Grandma Smith. I've always loved it and have admired the vintage style. More recently though, I've been really browsing the web looking at other P.D. art and I'm falling for it! I think I should have been born in a totally different decade. Seriously.

Speaking of favorites, I had the opportunity to go to this little store called Anthropologie this weekend. Sigh... I could've spent our savings in that place. I really could decorate my entire home with products from there. But, to save my marriage, I walked away with these lovely measuring cups.
Man. I really sound materialistic in this post, don't I? Well, I'm not really. I like to buy pretty, special things every now and again. It's not often that I get to go to a giant mall, find a new store and spend nearly $30 on a set of measuring cups. Gulp. And, it's not often that I can shop in a store without hearing "MOM! I want to go look at toys!!!" It was so nice to just leisurely walk around and not worry about time. I could shop all day just because of the time it takes me to decide.

I learned this from a friend that recently purged many of her possessions and moved into a smaller home to do some mission work. Only buy new items that you think you will love in a year. I have really tried to apply this rule to all my purchases... It certainly helped me when I was at the giant mall this past weekend.

Thanks for welcoming me back, blogging friends! I've missed you!

So Long, Farewell....

Ok, so I probably should've done this a long time ago... I am going to stop blogging. Oh, wait, I did do that a long time ago! (Not intentionally, but it happens...) I'm going to say 'goodbye' to this site. I'm kinda tired of it. I've had my fun, and well, I have a lot more to keep up on! I'm going to try out Blurb and make my blog into a book to keep. Hopefully my old blog is still up and I can get that one printed too.

Thank you to all who have checked this thing every once in a while for updates... I'm so thankful for your comments and the time you took to read it. If you have Facebook, catch me on there... I'd love to get to still chat with you!

Much Love,
Gabe's Mom, Greg's Wife, and Wish I Might.