Thanksgiving Memories

Our family had a wonderful time being together this year for the Thanksgiving holiday! The time just went by too fast. Adelaide was home for a week, but it seems like she was just here for a few days. Lauren and Thomas got to stay from Thursday until Sunday. I loved all the activity, chatter and laughter while they were all here. Now my nest is quiet again and I sure don't like it that way!!! I miss my girls already!

This picture is from left to right: Thomas (son-in-law), Lauren, Tom, Adelaide & Me
Lauren's little dog, Chi Chi, climbed up on my Santa pillow and took her nap. Our dog, Holly, and Chi Chi enjoyed their time being together too.
Dessert..... the most important part of the meal!!! My Mom's famous coconut cake with 7 minute icing and a fresh pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Yum!
This is my sister, Cecelia (we call her CC) and me. There is almost 12 years difference in our ages. Love time spent with my sweet sister!!!! Glad she only lives 2 hours away.
Hanging out in the den after lunch. Watching football, napping, working on the IPad, playing with the dogs, etc. A great time was had by all.
My brother-in-law, Larry and my sister, CC.
My Mom and Dad. Daddy must have just told one of his famous jokes, because it looks like Mom is fussing at him. They are such a cute couple! Glad I still have them in my life! My Dad had been sick this past week, so we were glad he was well enough to join us for lunch on Saturday. Our family had to wait and have our Thanksgiving meal on Saturday, since my niece and her husband had to work Thanksgiving day. And then, wouldn't you know it, my niece got sick and they couldn't even be with us after all. We were sad that they didn't get to come.
Lauren and Thomas. They have been married for 3 1/2 years. I am blessed to have a great son-in-law and he is such a wonderful husband to Lauren!
This is Adelaide and her new boyfriend, Nick. He is a very nice young man and we like him a lot. He will graduate from college in December and is presently looking for a job. They are a cute couple together!
Since the house is already decorated for Christmas, I used my poinsettias on the table for our Thanksgiving meal. I was glad that we could all sit together at one table, so we were able to talk and visit with each other.
Here is the table from the other direction. We had lots of delicious food. We all helped with the food and it wasn't too hard on any of us. I always host now, since it is too overwhelming for my Mom to have us all at her house for a holiday meal.

That night we watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. The famous movie about the Griswold family. It is so funny! Our family loves to watch this movie each year. It is a tradition to watch it on Thanksgiving weekend. Although we know the movie by heart, it always seems funnier each year when I see it. In some ways, our family is like the Griswold's. There is always something going on around here. LOL!!!

I hope your family had an awesome time being together over the holiday and making memories!!! We sure did! I just hate that the time went by so fast, but I have Christmas to look forward to now. Plus, once Adelaide is finished with this semester, she will only have one more semester of college and will be graduating in May of 2011. I can't believe it!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Thanking God today for all my many blessings!

I am thankful for:

- A God who loves me unconditionally!

- 2 daughters who have brought me more joy than they will ever know!

- A wonderful husband who I have known since I was 15 years old. We have been
married for 34 years.

- A son that I never had (my awesome son-in-law)!

- My health. I am a 7 year cancer survivor.

- The greatest parents anyone could ask for. I am so blessed to still have them in my
life!

- A very special sister (and her family)! Love you Sis!!!

- My home.

- My sweet pets. Dog (Holly), cat (Sassy) and canary (Sunny)!

- A great job and a wonderful family to work for.

- My freedom to live in a country where I can worship a God that I love.

- Great friends. I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends. I am especially
thankful for my blog friends.

- The joy in my life every day!!!! Thank you Lord!

- I could go on and on............


I saw a saying on a church sign yesterday and it said it all as far as I am concerned:

THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING TO BE THANKFUL FOR EACH DAY!!!!!!!

Love & blessings from NC!
Melinda

Christmas Decorations!

Last weekend, I got my whole house decorated for Christmas. Inside and out!!! I don't usually get everything out before Thanksgiving, but this year, I decided that I wanted to enjoy myself during December and not be stressed with decorating. I was pooped last weekend, but now that it is done, I am so thrilled that I have that all behind me.

I have ALWAYS loved Christmas and everything that comes with it! I collect Santas and they are all over my house. My favorite Christmas item is my Nativity Scene that I got as a child. I remember Mom taking me to the five and ten cent store to purchase each piece. The pieces were made in Italy, but back when they were purchased over 50 years ago, only cost around 25 to 35 cents each.
This is another favorite Nativity Scene too. It was made at church by my girls when they were little. It is so precious to me, because they signed most of the pieces on the bottom. Each piece is made out of a block of wood and felt. This Nativity sits on the floor underneath the table where my other Nativity is.
I made this Christmas banner when I was a child. I loved making things like this when I was younger and I am so thrilled to have my handmade things to pass on to my own girls. Both of my Grandmothers taught me how to do handwork. This banner is made out of felt, sequins and beads.
An end table in my den. I love the Mary Engelbreit saying... For Christmas, give your heart! My Grandmother made the fabric tree. Adelaide made the little pottery glove. And I love the little pottery Nativity.
This is one of my many Santas. His vest is made from an old quilt. I made the cross stitched pillow many years ago.
This Santa is made out of a bowling pin. He sits by my front door. A friend of mine painted him for me. Isn't he cute?
I love Anna Lee figures and these are a few from my collection. I love my Santas!
This is a tree that is in my entry foyer. A lot of the ornaments are handmade. (Many of them I made). More Santas and his elves are on the banister. Santa even hangs his hat on the post.
My gold & white table in the living room. It looks like a hodge podge in the picture, but it really is pretty. My white/gold Santas, glass Nativity,trees, angels, ornaments, etc. In the very front is a baby Jesus that Adelaide made at church when she was just a toddler. Baby Jesus is a wooden icecream spoon.
I love this old Santa. It is hard to tell from the picture, but his coat is made out of an old quilt. He is sitting by a corner cabinet that was my Grandmother's. The chair he is sitting in is old too.
This is my Santa collection on the top of our entertainment unit in the den. I have loved collecting my Santas and many of them have wonderful stories behind them. My husband is a Postmaster, so a lot of my Santas are mail related. I try not to buy as many Santas anymore, but I can't resist. I usually have to add a few each year.
I made my carolers at church many, many years ago and they sing in the breakfast room.
My tree in the den. Again, a lot of these ornaments were made by me through the years. I crossed stitched the alphabet picture on the wall. I love it!
My mantel in the den. I knitted the stockings (all but the meow one).

Sorry for the picture overload, but I wanted to show lots of my things. I still have some other pictures, but I will wait and post those later. As you can see, I totally love Christmas and all that comes with it. We haven't put up our live tree yet.

I hope you have enjoyed my Christmas decorations! Christmas is such a joyous time of the year. The celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Holiday Decorating!

Hey everyone, I am still here. I have just been so busy getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I did try to post this past weekend about my Father's trip to the World War II Memorial, but the computer would not let me upload the pictures that I have on the computer of his trip. Every time I tried to load them, it would post "error". After working with it for hours, I finally gave up. I'll try again when I have more time.

I am hosting my family for Thanksgiving this year, but we won't be eating until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, since my niece and her husband have to work the holiday this year. We will be having both of my girls, my son-in-law, Adelaide's boyfriend, my sister and her husband, my parents and my niece and her husband. There will be 12 of us!

I will roast the turkey and fix some of the food. My Mom and sister will bring some things too. That way it is not hard on anybody. Although the food is a wonderful part of Thanksgiving, I especially enjoy our time together. Looking forward to having everyone here for the holiday.

In getting ready to host my family, I decided to get my house decorated for Christmas. I have already started working on getting out my decorations. I brought all my storage bins upstairs last weekend. I have to pack up a lot of the items in my house in order to put out Christams stuff, so I have already begun to do that. My goal is to get everything put out by Sunday night. (Except our real tree).

Adelaide is coming home on Monday and I want to have everything ready and be able to enjoy my time with her while she is home. Plus, for one year, I also want to enjoy December and not have to be doing so much. I want to enjoy the Christmas season this year and not be so frazzled.

My girls and I have ALWAYS loved Christmas!!! We get so excited decorating the house and making things so festive. I collect Santa Clauses and they are everywhere in my house! I put up a real tree and I also have trees in each room of the house. They aren't large trees, but they each have pretty ornaments on them (many of them made by the girls or myself). I have something "Christmasy" in each room of the house (bathrooms included).

So think of me this weekend. I will have the Christmas CD's cranked up and will be spreading a little Christmas cheer throughout my house!!! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..........

Blog Friend!!!

On Friday, I had the opportunity to meet my long-time blog friend, Angela.
(Love Being a Nonny) We had the best time and we talked non-stop the whole time we were together!!! I met her at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. She and I don't live but about 30 minutes from each other, but just had never gotten together before. We both stay so busy with work and our families, but I am so glad that it finally worked out for us to meet each other.

Angela is as pretty and sweet in person, as I knew she would be. We just had so much fun being together and talking with each other. Angela has 3 grown children and 2 of the cutest little granddaughters that you have ever seen. She is expecting another grandchild real soon. If you have never read her blog, go over and say hello. She is one precious blog friend that I am so glad to have the privilege to know.

Angela and I have some other mutual blog friends and we said that it would be fun to meet them too. If you have never met any of your blog friends in person, I would highly recommend it. I have had the pleasure of meeting a lot of my blog friends.

Sorry for the delay in posting our meeting on Friday, but my computer froze up on me on Friday night, our college daughter paid us a surprise visit on Saturday and Tom and I had a reunion to go to on Saturday night. We have had such a fun weekend!!! And to top it off, I was on vacation last week and just enjoyed being here at home. It was great!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. I can't believe that it is already November. Thanksgiving and Christmas are going to be here before we know it, but I love the holidays!! Such a festive time of the year!!

Love & blessings,
Melinda