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I actually made a set of six of these simple cards that I didn't end up using, so I added some matching envelopes and thought I would share the set here.
If you would like it, please leave a "pick me" comment and I will email the random drawing winner on Friday.
Well Wishes...a homemade card shared on Wednesdays.
The trees have no ornaments, the village sits in boxes, there is nothing wrapped...hopefully we will find time to get that all done soon. But a few places around the house are decorated and the yellow cabinet in our entryway is one of them. I'll share more when it's all merry around here.
One of my happiest moments in this past year was on the first night of my little birthday vacation when Sean suggested we order a cheese plate at dinner and then was just as happy as I was devouring it.
I have a Pinterest board of cheese boards.
And I often contemplate buying plane tickets to Portland just so I can try Cheese & Crack, since I drool every time I see a photo of their cheese trays on Instagram.
So last week, when we were shopping for Thanksgiving dinner supplies, I spent too long at the Murray's Cheese Shop counter at our local grocery store. The very, very best part of this is you can ask them to cut smaller pieces of each cheese so you can try each one for just two or three dollars. You know, that way you can try six.
After the turkey was in the oven early Thanksgiving morning, I started cutting and assembling a cheese plate...with a couple kinds of crackers, deli meat, almonds and an amazing fig & orange spread from the cheese counter.
The cheese plate sat waiting on the kitchen table until Sean, Mac and I needed a snack to tide us over until everyone arrived for dinner.
Now I think we need to share a cheese plate snack every Thanksgiving...or maybe just every single week or something.
There is crocheted yarn and paper plates that don't really match and leaves cut out of wrapping paper and a wonky quilt of cardstock.
Our table is all ready for my very, very favorite holiday of the year.
This year's turkey day seemed to be a success. We packed up a couple of baskets and met my sister at their company office so she could get some work done during the turkey crafting and snacking fun.
This year we tried paint and forks to make turkeys...it was fun, but took forever to dry. Thankfully we had a turkey cheese ball snack (I improvised from this idea) and turkey trivia to answer while we waited.
Oh and turkey trivia meant prizes for everyone. Late the night before I couldn't resist getting out colored pencils for the prize bags tags.
Then our other craft was Uncle Seany's idea. He suggested the kids decorate bags for each person to take home Thanksgiving leftovers...yet another example of how seriously we take leftover packing. It'll be fun to surprise everyone with those carefully drawn out bags in a couple of days.
I was teasing with my nephew and nieces that our turkey day crafting tradition will certainly continue when they are super cool teenagers. They are nine, eight and seven, so I know there are barely a few turkey days ahead, so I am trying to soak up every fun moment of our own extra day of Thanksgiving traditions.
I wish I had more fun Thanksgiving-y projects to share with you to start the week, but there's nothing quite yet. I have ideas for decorating the dining room (here it is last year), but haven't tried them to see if they work. And we have our fourth annual turkey day tomorrow with our nephew and nieces, so I'm late organizing the supplies for the various Pinterest ideas I collected up for crafting and snacking.
But that's all I've got for now...nothing.
Thanksgiving leftovers are serious business in my family. We all carefully pack up food to enjoy throughout the holiday weekend.
I have had fun decorating leftover containers in the past, but last year I decided to focus on really organizing them so it would be easy to pass out to everyone as they headed home.
First, was the realization that I should pack leftovers ahead of time. We make everything, but the turkey, the day before Thanksgiving. So it finally occurred to me, if you cook it the day before, why then reheat it all the next day?
Instead, when each dish was done cooking, I filled smaller serving dishes for us to use during our Thanksgiving meal and then filled a take-home container of each item for each person. That way what would have been leftover anyway hasn't been cooked twice. The additional bonus to this plan is all my serving dish sizes are much smaller, making it easier to heat up everything in the oven together once the turkey comes out to rest. The next additional bonus is that one more step of work has been taken out of Thanksgiving day, packing up all the leftovers.
The thing I needed to keep in mind with the pre-portioning is that some people want this and not that or one item is their very favorite and they would love extra. So out came the washi-tape color coding. Each family member was assigned a tape design and all of their leftover portions could be easily identified in the fridge. I also had more empty labeled containers ready to fill with turkey and pieces of pies my sister bakes.
Thankfully, last year the plan worked perfectly, so it will be a new washi-tape organized tradition.
I am guessing you never realized how long someone could write about a Thanksgiving leftover plan, but like I said, my family doesn't mess around with this dinner. If it doesn't seem completely crazy to you, hopefully it will help your Thanksgiving efforts go a little more smoothly.
Well Wishes...a homemade card shared on Wednesdays.
Today was the first happy day at my desk in a while, since my computer seemed to be falling apart over the last couple weeks.
So very slow, not downloading, freezing, not printing, not saving, not connecting to the external hard drive. It was a mess.
After several attempts at solving it all, miraculously, it's pretty much back to normal.
I never appreciated making some worksheets for school and a holiday party invitation so much.
Last week I got to meet one of my Sociological heroes, Peggy McIntosh. She wrote, "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege".
I took seven pages of notes while listening to her speak, but one of the most poignant was when she said, "If I really believe in inclusion and equity, I might have to give up my place".
I want to always work towards being the type of person that is willing to give up my place.
This morning was tough, but being in the classroom helped. And, as I drove home during the sunset, I saw the lights turning on at the Field of Valor set up in our community this week. I met Sean at home and we immediately went back out the door to the park. We walked through the 1,776 flags symbolizing the ultimate example of giving up your place.
Instead of wallowing in fear, I want to find more opportunities to try to help. And I really hope all of us can find ways to help support each other.
See you next week...
I took this photo a couple weeks ago...a leaf on our driveway after a little bit of rain. Back when we had fall for a minute and it was wonderful.
I hate that I am still complaining about this, but tomorrow it'll be 93 degrees.
Way back on November 6, 2006, Sean and decided to stop the fertility treatments we were trying, to not try to adopt again, to dismantle the nursery we had and to give everything away.
That was the heartbreaking part.
But the hopeful part seemed like it was a pretty good plan. To be extra grateful we were Mac's parents. Sean wanted to start running and train for a marathon. He wanted to coach in the after school program at his junior high. And I wanted to finish my bachelor's degree and and finally be the teacher I had dreamed of being since I was twelve years old.
A year later Sean was running the Portland marathon and I was finishing the units I needed to transfer to the local state college.
Ten years later, Mac is working hard and enjoying college. Sean coaches three sports each school year and has been running over a hundred miles a month for years. And I am in my third year of teaching still pinching myself over the moments I get to spend with my students.
A few years ago I described our "infertility clause" like this, "Sean and I are big on counting our blessings so often when we are in a moment that we're really enjoying we'll point out to each other that this is what we get to have because of what we weren't able to have. Just trying to always keep the grass green on our side of the fence."
Ten years after we made our decision this could not be more true. We are a very lucky little family.
Still catching up on sharing Project Life pages from this year. This was from July and the beginning of August...we were so lucky to have the best summer.
I am actually a couple weeks behind on making pages, but seeing all of these together has me want to go start working on them right now.
Sean made a framed magnet board that we have had in our little guest half bathroom for a couple of years now and I am usually really bad at keeping something cute on it.
As I decorated for fall last month, I decided I'd get some old pumpkin patch photos reprinted to hang on the board...and make some magnets to hang them with.
I printed some tiny versions of digital patterned papers and punched 3/4" circles to adhere to painted 1" wood circles with a magnet on the back.
It was one of those quick projects, among lots of school work, that reminded me that it's really, really fun to craft stuff up. Now I need to switch out the photos with Thanksgiving memories.
