Thanksgiving Weekend activities

Hola, and

HAPPY THANKSGIVING WEEKEND!

Thanksgiving Day pies

PIE NIGHT. Wednesday night before Thanksgiving, we had our 7th annual "Pie Night." Everybody brings a pie, or something else if they don't care for pies. The idea is you should eat the best stuff first, of course, so we have our dessert on Wednesday night, before the big turkey dinner on Thursday. :) :)

TURKEY DAY. We had a relaxing Thanksgiving Day dinner with some fun families from church. 5 families came, and I believe we had 24 people (kids' ages ranged from 4 to 16yrs). The best part is only having to cook 2 dishes, and the rest is supplied by other people!

Afterwards we played games -- an oldie, "Catch Phrase," and a new one: Codenames. Then we ate some more food. Yep, lots of food.

WAY back in 4th grade,
Kara broker her leg...

DINNER CONVERSATION. For whatever reason, injuries came up as a topic (I know, around the dinner table, right?!?!) and Kara talked about when she broke her leg in the 4th grade. She also had this conversation with someone at school a couple of months ago. Back then, I sent her a picture of her xray, on her phone.  So, she even got to show everybody the xray of her broken leg...?!?!? Dinner was close to being over at that point, anyway. Bleh.

PEOPLE HERE. Another treat was having Angela here for the weekend! Here is a photo of her and Kara preparing our green bean casserole.


David and Teresa did not come home :(, but they'll be here for Christmas in a few weeks! Yippee! Although I think their "Yippee" will be more of an "I'm-So-Glad-Finals-Are-Over!!" type of thing, ha!

They each had Thanksgiving Dinner at different friends' houses. They took a mini-trip on Friday to Salt Lake City, to visit with cousins. Rachelle lives there now, and Sheree lives 1 3/4 hours north of SLC. She drove down with her family and they had a dinner together. Cool huh! Here's a picture Rachelle sent me, of the 4 cousins.

David, Rachelle, Sheree, Teresa

Angela, Kara + tree

DECORATING THE TREE. We took advantage of Angela being here, to decorate the Christmas tree. It's more fun with more people :)

We love taking out the ornaments Grandma Kay has given over the years. Some are musical, and we put the batteries in (we store the batteries separately between Christmases) and play the songs.

Journal gift from David

THANKSGIVING. About 6 weeks ago, I started a "Gratitude Journal" with this beautiful journal/ notebook David brought me back from Italy. Each day, I list 3 things I am thankful for. It may be a quick list, only a few words, or sometimes I end up writing a paragraph, describing the story behind my "thankful" thing. It has really helped me see how MANY wonderful blessings I have, family and friends being among the most important. We are so blessed.

Hope your weekend was relaxing, or fun, or filling, or whatever you wanted it to be!

Love, Kari

Leaves, Soccer and Sweet Potatoes

Hola, Familia!

See if you can hear this song in your head...it's the Mamas and the Papas
"All the leaves are gone (all the leaves are gone)
And the sky is grey (and the sky is grey)
I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)

On a winter's day (on a winter's day...)

I'd be safe and warm...if I was in L.A.
California Dreamin'...on such a winter's day..."

That song totally fits the mood today!  Yes! Cold and grey. We had a little rain last night, which we desperately need. The leaves on the trees are indeed brown or "mostly" gone, although there are some left on the tree out in the front yard. And the sky is grey.

BOYS SOCCER. Last night we went to watch our Boys High School soccer team. It was the State Finals, and we won!  Cool, huh! We have had a strong boys soccer team the last few years. 2 years ago the boys also took the state title. Teeny Tiny Wayland! We only have 14,000 people in this town. 850 at the high school. Anyway it was cool to watch :) :) :)

SWEET POTATOES. Frank came back from visiting his family in Virginia, and he brought me back some sweet potatoes, grown personally by Poppa Dave! Yessss! I love those. I baked some yesterday, and Kara and I had sweet potato for lunch.

Boston Temple

TEMPLE. Kara and I went to the temple in the morning, while Frank was on a scout campout. What a beautiful day it was! We got a nice lady to take our picture.

Kara, Kari squinting into the sun

SUPERMOON TUESDAY. It was a little cloudy on Supermoon night, but I still was able to get a few pictures. Big, bright and beautiful!

Hope your weekend has been great! Can't believe Thanksgiving is only 4 days away.

Have a great week! Kari

Supermoon with a little cloud cover

More Leaves and Musical Instruments

Hola, Familia!

FALLING LEAVES. I'm looking outside at the front yard, and we are now to the "raining leaves" stage of autumn. Sometimes you catch it where a breeze takes off a cloud of leaves and they just keep on fluttering, fluttering to the ground! The maple tree by the kitchen window is mostly orange and a little green. But those leaves just keep on coming!

All these falling leaves are happening AFTER Frank already spent 8 hours on the front and back yards during the week, raking up the WET leaves, after a rainy weekend. I gave my token piddly 1 hour, to help drag leaves back to the woods behind the house. That was Round One...

FOOD DRIVE. This morning Frank is out with the scouts, collecting canned goods for their annual food drive. It's cold, but not raining! Outside activities are SO much more fun when it's not freezing rain...?!?!?

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. I am finishing up the "instrument collection" we started a few months ago. Any used instruments, to be gathered for Fitchburg School District that is about an hour away from us. They don't have a huge music program. It's been neat to see people's generosity.

This happens to be MY saxophone, that I played
in middle school. Kara also played it in 6th grade!

Mostly I have gathered used instruments from people whose kids are out of the house, and they still have the instruments those children played in high school or middle school. One couple who donated a bunch of instruments have 4 kids, all in college or older, and this couple was getting ready to downsize and move. They brought over a drum set. Very cool!

Then she calls me again 2 weeks later. "We are to the attic stage of the house and we found another drumset I had forgotten about!" It was kind of funny. "My sister gave us her son's set to get my son started. Then when he decided to start his own band in high school, we bought him the set I already gave you."

So they donated 2 full drum sets! Those, plus 15 other donated instruments, have been sitting in our garage for a few months now. We plan to deliver them this week or next.

SOCCER. Kara has a few more soccer games to ref, I think today may be the last of her games.

OK, she's playing here,
not reffing, ha :)

THE EMPLOYMENT HUNT. The job search goes on...ups and downs, of course! Frank has had quite a few interviews (maybe 15?), that have gone nowhere. LAME. This week he'll talk to a few people (yes, interviews, yay) on Monday and Tuesday.

Then he'll go to Williamsburg and northern Virginia for almost a week. He gets to see family! David and Diane will be in Williamsburg, so he'll start there. Then he can help drive the 3 of them up to Dana's. Pam will visit too! It's so nice to get the siblings together occasionally.

Blog time is up! Have a great weekend and week.
Love, Kari