Thursday Before Thanksgiving

We still have a week before Thanksgiving and here I am posting Christmas!  I enjoy taking breaks throughout the day just sitting and looking at my tree so I decided to take a picture of just a section of it.  I got three new ornaments in the mail yesterday.  The pinwheel almost in the center was one of them...so pretty on the tree.  My friend made it out of what quilters call "prairie points."  When I called to thank her for the ornaments I told her that they had all found a place on the tree even though the tree is quite full of ornaments.  She said "always room for more ornaments!"  So true!  After I hung this one, I realized that it was right next to two others that she gave me over the years...the cloth
Santa right below the new ornament and the red ball with glittery holly on it.  I call my tree a memory

tree and those of you who read the blog and have given me ornaments over the years, know that you were thought of while I hung them and continue to think of you as I do my "tree walks."  Thanks again, Connie!  During the holiday season before I turn out the lights in the living room at night, I walk around the tree and look at and think about the various ornaments that catch my eye at that time.   I have the tree enough away from the back and side wall so I have a path around.  The sides and the back are as packed with ornaments as the front...and, I have favorites all around the tree...if one you gave me ends up on the back, it doesn't mean that I don't like it...it just means that when I got it out of its storage box, that was the best place for it...and, I will look at it on my walks even if it didn't got hung on the front!

This morning I had a usual Thursday of school...reading and other Montessori things with Joseph.  Isaac and I just read today as he had already taken his spelling test this week and I didn't have the
new list.  Elijah and Esther came for their times to read.  Then it was time for Isaac' long time with me.  I asked him when he came to read if he would help me with the little shelf upstairs that we put various Nativity scenes on...others that the children can play with.  We also put the children's Christmas books on the bottom shelf.  I told him that he could ask Joseph to help if Isaac wanted him to and if Joseph wanted to help.  Joseph did help.  The exciting that happened out of that little decorating job...I found the angel for the top of the tree!  I had been looking and about the last box I opened today, there she was!  I'll have to take another picture of the whole tree now that is complete with angel  on top. After he finished arranging the manger scenes, there was still time to do something else.  First we read a Christmas book.  After that we went upstairs and tried to arrange the K'nex boxes so they can still build with them.  I had just piled them up at the back of the guest room. Now they are up against the wall on one side.  Isaac is glad.  He then decided that since he still had some time left that he would make the next item in the simple machine K'nex book that he has been doing.  Today he got started on a wheel and axle build: a paddle boat.  He arm over later in the
afternoon to finish it.  The paddle wheel spins around thanks to a rubber band that is part of the build.

I haven't done a lot of cooking the last few days due to finishing up the decorating and preparing for a tea party.  So today it was necessary to make "something!"  I made an eggplant casserole for Woody and I decided that I wanted spaghetti and meat sauce.  I rarely make that these days as Woody can't have tomatoes.  We both enjoyed our varied suppers!

Woody did a little grass planting today in some bare spots between Nathan and Kathy's house and ours.  He also ran a couple of errands.  He decided that it helps to get some of our errand running out of the way before his major Friday errand running day,  he decided to go to the Credit Union and then to Aldi's.  He ended up finding turkeys for our Thanksgiving dinner.  We have to find Turkeys that are low in salt content which means avoiding turkeys that have a salt solution injected into them...not always easy to find.  But he found two smaller ones that fit the bill and "should" feed our crew next
Thursday. He once again watched the impeachment hearings.  So he has had a couple of busy days.  Yesterday he headed off after lunch to visit two of his Deacon families who are shut-ins.

I apologize for weird spacing and spelling as the blog is doing its back and forth thing and I can't see what I am typing and if my cursor goes to another place I have to use the return key to navigate...and then it changes the spacing.  It hadn't done this for a while, but it's baaaack.  Rather irritating and confusing...hard to keep my mind on track...so with that I will publish for tonight!  'Tis the season!