Thanksgiving 2015

I haven't posted anything since Halloween, but that's because I really didn't have anything to write about.  I've been making my transition between holidays, which isn't very exciting.  One thing that I've been busy with is making my Christmas cards:

I am using the newest window frame die cut from the Stampin' Up! holiday catalog.  I got an earlier start on them this year, which I am thankful for cuz it seems like I stress over them every year, trying to get them out on time.  I am making 50 cards this year - very time consuming.

Here is a little baby squirrel that was running around on our back deck a couple weeks ago.  

It's kinda hard to see him in this picture, but he was really cute.

Then we had a cold spell for a few days:

Then it warmed up into the 40s, we got some rain, and all of our snow disappeared.  Our back yard is all green again.

Anyhoo, my daughter Stephanie decided to come down from Fairbanks and spend Thanksgiving weekend with us, so we were pretty happy about that.

I look terrible in this picture.

She went with us to our annual Thanksgiving potluck dinner with our church family.  There were a lot of people there, as usual.

Steph, Kayla, and Justin

Here are just SOME of the desserts.  Apparently most people filled up on dinner cuz there were still a lot of desserts left over that were almost untouched.

After dinner, they always have a talent show, which seems to get shorter and shorter every year, but it's still always fun to watch.  

Here is Scott and his daughter Maggie acting out "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe:

I was quite impressed that Scott had that whole entire poem memorized!!

Then little Jaden "played" the harmonica for us.  He's 3 years old and has Down's Syndrome.  He's very tiny for his age.

Then David got a "haircut" (as if he really needed one!) while Jake told him the backwards story of "Rindercella" who "lell in fove" with the "pransome hince", and when the "mock struck clidnight" she "slopped her dripper" which "fidn't dit" on the feet of her "sugly isters".

  It was pretty funny to hear Jake tell the story (you had to be there).

Then Steve played the guitar while his sons entertained us with that old favorite song from "Hee Haw":  "where or where are you tonight, why did you leave me here all alone...?"

(only those of us in the older generation would know that song)

The also song a song about Little John and Robin Hood running through the forest.

Then Adam and Isaac played a few tunes on their violins:

From where I was sitting, I couldn't get a good picture.

Then Bobbie sang us a song - she actually has a pretty good voice.  I didn't recognize the song, but I'm guessing it was a song from one of the recent Disney movies.

So that was pretty much it for the talent show.  

So today we weren't real sure what we were gonna do, but Steph wanted to go shopping cuz she doesn't have all the stores in Fairbanks that we have here, especially in Anchorage.  Typically, I do NOT! 

go shopping on Black Friday!!!!!  But this year I went just to make Steph happy (oh, the things we do for our kids!).  The stores were pretty busy, but they could've been a lot worse.  After awhile, you just get sick of constantly dodging people.  It wasn't complete insanity, but it was bad enough to make me want to reinforce my personal rule to just stay home on Black Friday and happily and peacefully work on my Christmas cards, listening to Christmas music and sipping on hot tea!!!

Anyhoo, here we are the 5th Ave. Mall:

Here I sat my weary self down and took a picture of people going up and down the escalators while Steph was looking for a new pair of shoes:

Here, we put Chuck in charge of watching all of our purchased goodies while us girls went our separate ways (to quickly go look for something that we were looking for......)

We were also planning on going to the Dimond Center, but by the time we got done here, Steph decided that she really didn't "need" to go to the Dimond Center.  So on the way out of Anchorage, we hit Kohl's to shop for a few more things and that was it.  It felt like a very long day.  I hope Steph satisfied her shopping urges.

That's about all that's going on here.  I might be able to talk Chuck into letting me put the Christmas tree up tomorrow, but I don't know.  He doesn't get too excited about Chri$tma$, and I really can't figure out why.....