Happy Thanksgiving!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

To all of you who make blogging so much fun, I appreciate your visits, the comments and the friendships we have developed here. We are a lucky circle of friends that span from the coast of Alaska to as far as Australia! I pray for a bounty of blessings to you and your families this weekend.

From my table to yours...

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Random for the weekend...

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Random things here...

Looked out my kitchen window today and the view is starting to look like this...

This morning my first cup was a 1/4th of eggnog and 3/4th of coffee... Mmmm...

Speaking of coffee, recently I went to use the LAST $$ on my gift card to buy a Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate, but...

they didn't bring it back on the menu this year. I gasped! Inside I moaned "But I lurve that and was really looking forward to that." But instead, I said, "Okay.... what other holiday promotions do you have going on now?" and the Barista said, "Creme Brulee Latte!" I gasped again, "I lurve Creme Brulee, I'll try that!"

And then I waited...

and waited...

and waited...

...they forgot about my order in all the busy-ness of the crowd. That has never happened to me there before. A Barista looked at me and I quizingly looked back at her and she said, "Are you still waiting for your drink?" I said, "Yep!"

Then she gasped! She went to the crew shift manager and said something to him and he looked at me... I smiled back... he left... he came back a few minutes later with my Creme Brulee Latte and then.... this is really the climax of my post... he said, "On behalf of all of us, I am so sorry about the delay of your beverage and because you didn't even complain and were so nice about our mistake, here are SEVERAL free coupons for drinks of your choice on future visits."

It was delicious and it was LOADED with extra candy bits of the burnt sugar! I'm SURE the loaded part was a bonus just for me!

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My lovely Mother-in-Law asked us to make our Christmas wish list and here is what I put on it... a silver book for my charm bracelet.

Tomorrow evening we are going to church to be part of a 400 person Thanksgiving dinner. We are bringing a huge tub of Sweet Potatoes! I'm not one for having 400 people for dinner but I made the exception because...

... after dinner my Girl is getting baptized! My hankies and camera are ready.

Today I'll be making my list for Thanksgiving. I'm hosting this year while my sister and I do the cooking.

My To-Do list has many things...

~ Shopping. Most of it is already done. First food item is tradition! And it has to have those can mold rings on it. ha ha

~ Prayer - I have so much to be thankful for

~ Start defrosting the turkey TODAY

~ Because of a furlough day, I have the day off before Thanksgiving so I'll be setting my tables and getting all the dishes out labeled with what will go in it AND I also put the serving utensil in it so I'm not scrambling to find it at the last minute

~ Visiting! Today we'll be doing a Community Outreach project with my small group at church. We are delivering pillows, afghans & blankets, baby stuff, etc. to a women's transitional housing facility, THEN after that we're going to visit Victoria and Michael who were blessed with buying their first home recently and are hosting a Open House. I ALWAYS bring my signature giftie...

A basket filled with~

Bread, that this house may never know hunger

Salt - that life may always have flavor

Wine - that joy and prosperity may reign forever

and I include this same verse on a card with the picture from It's a Wonderful Life.

What random things are you doing?

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Birthday Memories!

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Thank you for the birthday greetings I received from you all who stopped by to share the lurve and I have to say it has been a really nice week! It was not only my birthday but also my turn to host Afternoon Tea with my regular group of ladies of whom I rotate with and I also invited my best friend Erin who won't be able to join me this week for yet another party time this week. I know it just keeps going and going and going. Heck, I say that your birthday isn't REALLY over until you spend the last gift card, so you can really stretch these things out.

For my tea party I thought we'd do something a little different. Instead of the dinning room, I moved the party to the family room to watch one of my favorite Jane Austen novels adapted into a movie ~ PERSUASION.

I lurve this version the best because it stays truest to the book and of course the excellent casting...

For my little giftie, I made these EASY Pumpkin Spice Cookies to share. Minimum 2 ingredients, that's right - only 2 - but you can add 2 more if you want nuts or white chocolate chips.

These are soft, moist cookies so I DO NOT recommend storing them in an airtight container otherwise they will get mushy. To keep them from doing that I stored them in brown paper bags that I hole punched to allow air to flow through the bags as you'll see in the pictures below.

I added a little scented packet for embellishment...

And placed them on the table ready to hand out as the ladies left the party.

I nearly forgot to take pictures again...

Here is Erin and I... I was fixing the color of the original photo and accidently made it black and white... and liked it so much that I kept it that way.

During our movie, my sister Melody's Grand-daughter, Audrina came over to visit and got passed around for all the love!

Even my bloggyland friends who commented on my birthday post joined us for cake and presents! tee hee ... Do you see yourself?

For dessert, I made a Pumpkin Spice cake using this recipe. The only change I made was not using white chocolate chips as the frosting - I chose Cream Cheese Frosting instead. This was a keeper, EVERYONE loved it and again it is another easy recipe.

My sister Melody even wrapped my presents in Regency Era trimmings!

Cookware from my Mom, I lurve kitchen stuff!

Victoria got me this great book... 101 Things You Don't Know About Jane Austen! Can you see my excitement?!

Ann drove up to Northern California recently and spent the day at Apple Hill. It is a community of apple farmers who open their farms every weekend September through November selling everything you can think of with apples and crafters also join in selling their creative things. Ann brought me back some Pumpkin butter and Apple Cinnamon Sauce.

My Mother-in-Law brought me back from her trip to Greece this LOVELY handcrafted with crystal beads pitcher cover. Here I am demonstrating how it works over a glass.

She also brought me back this BEAUTIFUL painted card table cover for Christmas. I started to crop this picture until I saw the expression on my sisters face.... Hmm - perhaps she's jealous because she didn't get one? ha ha Melody - why were you making that face? ha ha

Yahoo, Erin got me a gift card to Michael's Crafts store! I lurve going there. Everytime I walk in there it makes me believe I'm more creative than I really am! ha ha

Now here I have saved the best for last! On the evening my birthday, my children surprised me with a song they had written themselves using instruments! This was a light-bulb moment for me because it suddenly made sense why I've heard faint bits of music in their bedrooms for the past few weeks.

My Boy came up with his own Drum Set of items that made different sounds. His sticks are Ping Pong paddles. ha ha Soooooo cute!

Homemade cards! My Girls says... "Your the best Mom ever! Even though your 41, your still quite some fun!"

Even Samson came and got all comfortable in my lap, he lets me hold his hands/paws. He is 7 months old now, starting to look like a teenager. He's so loveable! He's even getting trained to the word ~ TREATS! I'll ask him if he wants a TREAT and he races to the cupboard, sliding on the kitchen floor to make the turn where we keep them. ha ha

Another great birthday memory!

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