A Thanksgiving to Remember

I had to post about Thanksgiving before Christmas but this is cutting it close!

We drove to south Louisiana to spend Thanksgiving with my sweet Mamaw. I have so many aunts, uncles and cousins, second cousins and third cousins on my mom's side of the family, I truly have lost count. My Mamaw had TWELVE children; six boys and six girls.

Here she is and she was thrilled to have family together for the holiday. I need to post about how special she is and what an amazing honor it is to be her granddaughter.

Below is a picture of W waiting for all the food to be arranged so he could EAT. The girls happily obliged my photo op.

Here are three boy cousins looking for some boy things to do.

Oh look, same boys having having no problem having fun in the girly princess castle bounce house. A bounce house at Thanksgiving, you ask? Oh my yes, that is how we roll.

W and I at the end of a great Thanksgiving Day!

Here is MK loving on her great-Mamaw!

Two cousins getting together after a whole YEAR!
Our children love to ride on the luggage cart and here they are ready to roll.

The hotel had a little putt-putt golf course and they had a chance to play before we left.

This was too sweet not to include.

On our way home, we stopped as we crossed into Mississippi and had lunch with family that was not far behind us.

Cousins getting ready to say good-bye!

We have some wonderful Thanksgiving holiday memories.

Fall Leaves.... and memories

The week before Thanksgiving, the tree pictured above was calling to me for a couple of days. I tried to push aside my weakness for the beautiful leaves .... especially since it was not in our yard and belonged to someone else. Since the house is for sale and no one lives there now the timing really was perfect.

For more history, it was a house that I lived in when I was five years old and in the first grade. Just another tidbit, it is in the town where we live now and I see it all the time but it is the first time I have ventured close to it since I lived there last. Okay, back to the leaves!

There was a lot of jumping and reaching. Sweet MK tried even though it was too high! Her big sister brought her plenty to make up for it though.

I had to get a picture of them on the porch. I do have a picture of my sister and I on that very porch when I was W's age.

There happens to be a great magnolia tree there too! Later that day when we were at home, A tied her leaf stems together in a bunch and put them in water and gave it to me. She shares my love for this time of year.

W fascinated with the "baby" leaf, dubbed by A.

After I held a branch down low enough for her to reach, MK picked one for herself.

Here they are posing by a brick fence that I posed by when I was little. I do have pictures of me and those bricks back then but you will just have to imagine for now.

I remember playing in that yard well, catching lightening bugs in a jar and making sure there were holes in the top so they could breathe and watching them until I fell asleep, lying in bed thinking of a name for my soon-to-arrive baby sister with my Daddy, going to the post office to pick up mail, eating peanut butter with graham crackers, playing on the school playground, counting to 100 and reading, going to church, celebrating Christmas and Easter and experiencing the different seasons.

It was a beautiful place and I am grateful I went back... even if I may have been trespassing.

Just in case any other former resident is interested, did I mention the house is FOR SALE?

Happy Fall!

The time finally arrived! ... to wear costumes for a reason. We do this around our house all the time anyway but today it was acceptable outside in public!

Here is our sweet little bumblebee. She made her own sound effects and even stung people.

Our Doctor A made sure all were well before we left.

Star Trek officer W was just excited to wear his uniform for all to see.

Here is the happy doctor just moments before she treated a cute bumblebee sting... see next pic.

The Bumblebee's next victim. Fortunately, he thinks she is great even when she stings.

I had to include this picture even though someone's eyes were not completely open because it was a great picture anyway!

Here they are finding a Banana to hang around with.

Happy Fall!

Acorn Cookies and a Pecan Harvest

Yesterday it was so cold and felt more like winter but we are still enjoying the fall so acorn cookies seemed appropriate. These are butter-pecan cookies with some chocolate and pecans for their tops.

The recipe is always misleading with baking them for about nine minutes because the entire process from beginning to end was more like three hours! ... and for the children it was FOREVER ... but they are delicious.

It was late in the afternoon and dinner to ponder when A discovered the pecan harvest that had to happen. We have been watching over those pecans closely. In years past, the pecans must have fallen in the middle of the night as the squirrel family across the yard watched carefully and made their annual journey to STEAL nearly all of them. Not this year! We have been even more vigilant and had great success for our first day. There are still many that need to fall but hopefully the squirrels will be on the short end this year.

Here is A with some of our pecan bounty that we managed to scoop up. It was freezing outside but it was worth it!

One more reason to love fall!

Fall is Here!

I am so excited about the change of seasons. The conversations I seem to have had recently (besides the ones about the hurricane) are peppered with topics of the fall temperatures, the leaves, the clothes and did I mention temperatures! This is such a welcome to fall week with a great forecast and temperatures cool enough to warrant layers and the thought of a little jacket. After a beautiful day with a temperature of 72, tonight the low temperature will be a big 53! This is all about my giddy adoration of a season like no other. I am going to light my pumpkin spice candle for the second time today!