T.H.A.N.K.S.G.I.V.I.N.G.

We had a nice past Thanksgiving week, and as I hardly touched my computer all week, I have a lot to blog about!  

T is for Turkey Dinner!  We were blessed to have some other families in our ward without family plans for Thanksgiving dinner, and so we all got together for a fun meal.  We missed being with family (this is our first time experiencing Thanksgiving without family) but we were glad to be with friends that we like so much!  I got to make my favorite Thanksgiving foods for the potluck dinner - pomegranate salad, The Pioneer Woman's yams, Grandma Klingler's rolls, and of course, banana cream and lemon meringue pie.  Katelee talked all morning about going to the "feast," but once we got there, she was so excited to play with the other kids outside in the 65 degree sunny weather that we had a hard time getting her to eat at all!  It was a delicious feast, though, and we are grateful we had such a fun people to share it with!

H is for Hammond's Candy Factory!  We were looking for something special to do as a family on Saturday that was free, and since the mint was closed we ended up visiting Hammond's Candy Factory.  They give a free tour where you can watch the candy being made, free samples, and free hats to the kids.  And if you are a candy fan, their shop is tons of fun!

A is for a.m.  As in 4:00 a.m.  As in the time I got up to go shopping on Black Friday.  I've never done this before.  In fact, I really don't think I've ever gone to a store at all on Black Friday before.  But I went with my friend, Laurie, and we had a lot of fun!  I got a good deal on a few things at Wal-Mart, but I'm really excited for the flannel we bought at JoAnne's.  $1.49 a yard equals $3 homemade blankets for baby gifts for this upcoming year - awesome!

N is for NO SCHOOL!  Gerald didn't have any classes all last week, and although he had to go to campus a couple of days to work on projects, it was AWESOME to have him around so much and to have his schedule be so flexible.  This was by far the best part of last week.  And we only have 2 weeks left of school and he will be officially done with his first semester!  Happy day! There are definitely some perks to be being a student - such as the month (yes, month!) Gerald gets off for Christmas break.  I can't wait!

K is for Katelee (of course!) and the silly, funny girl she is.  We had so much fun hanging out this past week!  Here she is sporting her stylish 'lamp hat.' 

S is for Sewing Projects.  I've been doing a lot of sewing with my few days off.  My pride and joy is the Christmas dress and matching headband I made for Katelee.  This is by far the most elaborate sewing project I've done yet, because it has both sleeves and a zipper!  (Special thanks to Laurie for helping me understand how to do a zipper!)  I know all my sewing friends are probably laughing so hard at the fact that I am calling this very basic dress elaborate, but for my simple skills this is huge.  Katelee chose the fabric and was excited about every step of the process.  She loves to twirl around in her new 'sparkly' dress, as she calls it.  I figure I made the whole thing for about $12, so not an amazing deal, but not bad, and I'm glad I'm learning more sewing skills in the process.

G is for Gratitude Journals.  We made these gratitude journals at a Relief Society activity a couple of weeks ago.  This is the first Relief Society activity I've been in charge of since I got my new calling, and I think it went well.  I've been keeping a gratitude journal for a few months now, and I have to say that I really think it is making a difference in my life.  I love it.  I have been so much more aware of the hand of the Lord in my life than I usually am.  I think everyone should keep some sort of journal where they write down how the Lord has blessed their lives on a regular basis.  The results for me have been enormous.  Anyway, we want every sister in the ward to have one, so I spent a great deal of time over Thanksgiving break making dozens of extras of these journals to give out next Sunday.  The most popular scrapbook papers were already taken, but still I think they are cute.  This is such a fun and easy project, if you are trying to think of inexpensive gifts or a fun project night idea!

I is for Infinite Blessings.  We truly are so blessed.  It was wonderful to take some time this past week to count and reflect on our many, many, many blessings.

V is for Very Fun!  We had some friends over for a game night last week, and we had a lot of fun!  We love to play games and really need to do it more often.  Our friends have a little girl almost exactly Katelee's age, and they are so cute together!  We dressed them both in their matching P.J.'s for the game night, and they had a 'pajama party' together!  What cute friends!

I  is for Incredible Decorations!  Okay, so maybe they're not exactly 'incredible,' but I had to make this work for 'I' somehow!  ;)  We did decorate our house for Christmas this past week.  It makes our home feel so cozy and festive, and I love having the decorations up!

N is for Nativity.  We found a children's plastic nativity this year for a decent price at Deseret Book, and couldn't resist buying it.  We introduced it last week as part of our Family Home Evening, and Katelee loves playing with it.  She calls it "an activity" (instead of nativity) and plays with it every day.  I love hearing her act out the story of Jesus' birth with the characters, even if her imagination sometimes leads to unexpected twists in the Biblical events . . . :)  My favorite is when she's done playing, she always sets up all the characters like this.  When I asked why she did that, she said, "Because they are all looking at Baby Jesus, Mom." 

G is for Garage!  When we moved in our house, we were here for 3 days before Gerald started school and we traveled back to Utah that first week for a wedding.  To make a long story short, we never were able to get around to cleaning out and organizing the garage.  Gerald hasn't really been home for a weekend since school started, so Thanksgiving break offered the first opportunity to get this job done.  Gerald did most of it, and he did a great job!  It is great to have everything organized and best of all to be able to actually park the car in the garage!  Hooray!

Well, that about sums up our last week.  If you're still reading this, I have to say:  Wow!  You are either a very loyal friend or you don't have much else to do right now.  :)  Thanks for sticking with me, even though this post was about the length of a novel!  We hope your Thanksgiving was a wonderful one!