Thanksgiving 2013

Since my mother was in town for Thanksgiving, we decided we would host a small gathering this year.  Both of my daughters, my son-in-law, and two of my grandkids joined us.  Here are some images from our very happy day.

 Amelia, Rachel, John, and Mom

 John and Aunt Emily

 Great-Grandma with John

 Sisters Rachel and Emily

 John playing Yahtzee

 Grandma Marilyn, Rachel, Debbie, Emily

 Me and Mom

 The table set with my grandmother's tablecloth, my mother's Thanksgiving napkins that I made for her years ago, and the paper table favors Mom and I made the night before.

 Amelia attempting to devour her Dad's ankle!

 And me apparently attempting to devour the turkey all by myself!

 Rachel and John playing cards

 9-Hole Golf with Rachel, Emily, and Darrel

 John calling Grandma

 "Dad, it's for you!"

 Amelia entertained herself for much of the afternoon by playing a spelling game on her dad's phone.

 John is big enough to ride the riding toys all by himself.

 We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing!

 The place settings . . . 

 Olive fingers!

Angry pilgrim!

 A little post-dinner music by Bryan

 Grandpa Darrel and Amelia play a high-low card game.

 In 9-Hole Golf, every able bodied shuffler must be on deck.  Get it?  On deck?

 Happy Thanksgiving--yes, it was!

Apparently someone was a bad girl!

Four generations

Super Domestic Upcycling Pinterest Crafty Goddess Christmas Tags

I finally got my craft room/guest room/office reasonably well organized (we won't talk about the academic papers and ministry files), and I have been slowly working on craft projects again.  Did you know that I love to make things?  I have spent so much of the last four years buried in books that maybe you didn't actually know that about me.

Here's a recent Pinterest-inspired project.  I took last year's Christmas cards and made gift tags out of them.  I used Stampin' Up punches and a Sizzix die-cut to get these various shapes.  For a couple, I simply cut shapes out with scissors.  I found images, parts of images, colors, textures, bits of wording, even the small images that are sometimes on the back of cards.  Even photo cards often have small images that are perfect for a gift tag.  I could stamp the other side with a "to: for:" stamp or just leave it blank so I can write whatever I want.  Some of the smaller ones I may use to glue onto small packages wrapped in plain brown or white paper, just to decorate the package.

Here's the original pin, if you want to check it out:  http://www.thegoodstuffguide.com/upcycling-christmas-cards/

Japanese Steakhouse Again!

We love to go to Susumu Japanese Steakhouse in Lynnwood for special occasions.  After all the graduation festivities died down, Mom took us and Rachel and her family there for dinner.  The grandkids were funny and cute, as usual, so here are a few photos.

Amelia's Third Birthday: Gruffalo Themed

We lost our card reader so we couldn't download photos for awhile.  But here are some from Amelia's birthday party in March.  Apparently Darrel took all the photos so he isn't in any of them.  But you will see our grandson John, granddaughter Amelia, daughter Rachel, son-in-law Bryan, daughter-in-law Amanda, and me.  Rachel did a beautiful job of theming all the activities, decorations, and food to the Gruffalo book that Amelia loves so much.