A Peak Into Our Thanksgiving;

This year we opened up our home and hosted Thanksgiving. I love to host in general. I love being surrounded by family and friends, the planning and preparations that goes into it. Maybe I should have been a party planner. Ha ha ha.

Everything went as planned and the food turned out great. I made my famous homemade apple sauce, homemade mashed potatoes, my glazed carrots with of course the rest of your typical Thanksgiving goodies.  Setting the table was probably my favorite part of preparing for the dinner. 

 For our adult dinner table I kept it simple. I used warping paper cut for the placemats. I borrowed burlap for my table runner since my theme was more of the rustic/ romantic theme. One rule of hosting is, it's okay to borrow. Don't ever ever forget that. Don't feel like you have to go out and buy everything just to host.

 For the center piece I shoved my husband outdoors and had him gather sticks from our backyard. Thank goodness for the woods. He he he. I used the yarn to wrap it around the sticks to give it a decor lift.  I bought an old fashion looking glass milk bottle from Big Lots for only 2 dollars! Yes I was very excited.

Now onto the kids table. For the table cover, once again I used the Christmas wrapping paper. It just happened to match my theme. I borrowed the beautiful hand crafted silverware holders from my Mother-in-law. I choose the wrapping paper for the children's table incase they choose to color on it. Great idea right? I thought so to. Our place cards were made from card stock paper folded and cut to size. 

Hope you all were able to enjoy your Thanksgiving. Now we are off to get out Christmas Photo's taken.

Photo Friday Blog/Instagram Hop!

Welcome to the Photo Friday Blog Hop

Welcome back! 

And Happy day late Thanksgiving! I can't wait to share my Thanksgiving post with all of you tomorrow. So here's a sneak peak!

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Thankful Garland Craft

This has been by far one of my favorite holiday crafts to do with my daughters. It made the girls really ponder about what they are thankful for. Let me tell ya, they came up with many reasons to be thankful. Some were deep and most were pretty logical. It soon turned into a discussion about being thankful and why they were thankful for these things. A few examples of theirs were...

• their beds
• cars
• family
• our house
• shoes
• kindness
• food
• God
• God's house

Not only is it a great opportunity to get your child to open up and spend quality time with them, it also allows them to practice basic writing skills and spelling. Perfect for my four year old and seven year old. This will definitely be a traditional craft for the books now. 

Weekend getaway. At the cabin.

Friday I was busy packing while counting down the hours till we left to the cabin. It was time for us to take a step out of the bubble of "go go go" and step into the bubble of relaxation. Saturday morning we woke to freshly fallen snow. Just a light dusting. Just enough in my eyes. Still enough for the girls to enjoy it. Still a sufficient amount to beautify the morning view while I sipped my coffee sitting next to the warming stone fire place inside. 

Snow doesn't stop us. We still have fun. When we have had enough, we head inside and warm our up with hot coco and marshmallows.

 Of course while we were at the cabin we had to visit our Dog Porter's grave. If you don't remember he had passed away from old age a couple weeks ago. It personally hit me harder than anyone in the family. He is buried next to my husbands family dog. They were "dog" buddies.

We were really able to sit back and enjoy our family time. It was well needed. Although it always lovely to get away it also feels nice to come back home. Isn't that what getaways are for? Ha ha. Now I start the planning for Thanksgiving since I am hosting it at my home this year. 

Are you hosting Thanksgiving dinner?

Thanksgiving

As I was sitting here debating which direction to start my Thanksgiving post, the first things that clicked in my  head was, never send your husband to the grocery store for you. I volunteered to make homemade mashed sweet potatoes with the melted marshmallows on top. They are my favorite every year. Therefore I send my husband out to the store. He comes home with these giant sweet potatoes! The first sentence that came out of my mouth was, "Did you look through to find the biggest sweet potatoes?!" Don't get me wrong, I was laughing. His response was, "yes I did, they were on sale 15 cents a pound. So I tried finding the biggest sweet potatoes I could." We both had a good chuckle out of it though, and it didn't take me as long to peel them. 

This year we had Thanksgiving with my husbands side of the family at the cabin. We switch it every other year between my family and his. It works out great that way for us. It was such a beautiful 60 degree day; one of the warmest Thanksgivings we have had. On our way up to the cabin, we were able to enjoy a relaxing country drive.

                                          

The calm before the snow.

                            

                            

While enjoying our Thanksgiving up at the cabin with family, we were able to go on a hike through the woods. We relaxed by the fireplace and let the girls play. And of course we enjoyed our Thanksgiving feast. My in laws prepared a wonderful turkey. After we indulged into pie. My all time favorite is pumpkin pie. I already counting down for next Thanksgiving.

Thankful Tuesday

In our home we have been doing the 30 days of what we are thankful for.  I ask our daughters every day what they are thankful for and we write it on our chalkboard. I love the thought they put into their answer of what they are thankful for each day. A few things they are thankful for that we wrote down are ...

• Our home
• Cousins
• Jesus
• Mom and Dad
• Grandmas and Grandpas
• Our food
• Their toy room
• Sisters

I am personally thankful for Evalyn's kindergarten teacher. I was blessed to be able to help her class yesterday morning for "pilgrim day". As I observed her teachers techniques with the children, I was simply amazed. Along with the amount of energy that she has; I have no idea how she can do it. Later that evening we had Evalyn's conferences for school. She is doing great academically and socially. It feels wonderful knowing you daughter comes home excited about school because of her teacher. Us parents need to be thankful when we are blessed with an amazing teacher for our children. I truly believe it takes a a special person to be a teacher.

A few other things I am thankful for are..

• My family; I would be lost without them.
• My daughters; they are the light of my life.
• My husband; I wouldn't be where I'm at today without him.
• Food; even though I hate grocery shopping.
• Coffee; it's my jump start to the day.
• Cloth diapers; they have saved us money and the earth.
• Knitting; it is my way of non-stressing.

My grocery trip Sunday. This is what our grocery cart looks like. I am mostly a health freak.

Watching our local Santa parade in bed Saturday morning.

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What are you thankful for today?