Thanks Turkey

In my never ending quest to ensure that my children grow up with at least a few morals, we started a Thanksgiving tradition a couple years ago. I make a turkey body on a big piece of poster board and then we write on the feathers all the things for which we are thankful. We even had Grandma & Grandpa (all the way from Paris, France) and our Pastors add some things. It's really fun to watch our turkey feathers 'grow' our turkey.
Here's a sampling of what some of our 'thankings' were:
Carissa: my pink bunny, my pink elephant, my family, speech school, real school, Simon, Mama, Daddy
Simon: God, family, snow, desserts, the ten commandments (they're learning them in Sunday School and yes, I have told him my favorite is the 4th, honor thy father and mother!), food, our house
Anne: chocolate, my kids, my husband, my family
Grandma: many family members, Grandpa, being able to celebrate Thanksgiving with us, physical therapy(she had back surgery last Dec)
Grandpa: Being an American (that's an ex-Air Force Captain for ya!), being able to go to church with the people you love (he's really lonesome for home right now), cranberries, Grandma
Pastors: our church, Jesus love for us, snow
It was such a fun activity to see how the kids thought and it reminds me every time I look at how many more things I could be adding.

Grandma's Coming!

Yeah! Tomorrow, Grandma will be here. Not only are the kids thrilled, I'm excited too. Then off this weekend for a much needed weekend away for Dave & I. I'm so happy!!! Now, I just need to finish the cleaning and cooking before we go.

Things that Bring Me Joy

Trish, I loved your posts so much that I'm hijacking your idea!
What gives me joy? Things that are red. I love, love, love the color red. I glanced in my closet and what did I see? Lots of red clothes. My lovely laptop is red, my purse is red with white polka dots, and I am absolutely drawn to red fabrics. Ah, red gives me joy!!

The Simple Things

For lunch today, Carissa & I had pizza. Nothing exciting, just a frozen one from the store. But, we ate on a blanket in the den. Instant picnic! She's so excited about it, because not only did we get a picnic, but we get to watch Dora at the same time!! Oh, life can't get any better. Especially since Mama took the time to catch up with her favorite blogs while we were picnic-ing.
Sometimes, its the simple things that make us the happiest!!

Pumpkin Apple Spice Muffins

Have a new recipe to try. I'm thinking this will warm up the house before dinner. (Note: I made these last night and they are tasty, tasty, tasty! Will definitely be baking these again!)

Pumpkin Apple Spice Muffins from Melissa F.
Yield: 2 dozen
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice**
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice**
3 tablespoons sugar
Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Combine pumpkin, butter, and eggs in another bowl and add to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Fold in chopped apple and spoon into greased muffin pans, filling two-thirds full. Combine 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice; sprinkle evenly over muffins. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from pans immediately, and cool on wire racks.
**My tip: if you don't have pumpkin pie spice, use the following combination: 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ginger and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon cloves. Mix together and woila! - you have the equivalent of 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (and it is much cheaper than buying it premade).

It's Snowing!

I just looked outside and it's snowing! Thank goodness it wasn't during trick or treating yesterday. The wind was bad enough. I'll post a picture of the kids when I get a chance. Carissa wanted to be a princess, but it was just too cold. She was a ladybug (or lovebug) and Simon was a shark. Carissa got to change into Cinderella when she got home to hand out candy to the other trick or treaters. For it being so cold, having fewer houses handing out candy and not going as far, we sure have a huge lot of loot! Soooooo tempting!

Fun Quote

Sometimes a quote just catches my fancy. Here's the one for today:

To succeed in life, you need three things:
a wishbone, a backbone and a funny-bone.
~Reba McEntire

Happy Tuesday!