Family Time

Had a nice visit with family and extended family this weekend.  Total number with our family was 23 here for two days of visiting, eating and finding fun activities to pass the time. 
I had been cooking in preparation most of the week, so was greatly relieved when everything came off well, and we were able to enjoy our time together.

Dining room and a full crowd

Sunroom with extra table for meal seating and games

Just a few photos to share with you of people and activities this weekend.

My cousin James showing Lauren how to bowl on the Wii

James and Jessica's youngest son Tai

Hannah and Tai playing Wii baseball

My Uncle Bill with his grandkids, Tai and Brittany

Tai trying to coax a chicken to eat from his hand



Mika and Brittany feeding the chickens

Jessica fixing Lauren's hair

Hannah getting her hair done

Beautiful braid

Lauren's hair is so fine the "sprouts" work best

Black Friday

I am an anti black friday non participant.  I HATE crowds so there is NO DEAL out there worth the hassel for me.  I did take advantage of some of the online sales thus labeled for this famous shopping day.  And will have these delivered to me, so yay, no crowds and still got some deals.  Love that!!

Yesterday was really nice.  Amber, Eddie and Eddies's sister Erika joined us for our Thanksgiving meal.  Went well, I'm happy to say.  All the effort in food prep was worth it. 

After our meal we had a great time visiting and then began our tradition of putting up the outside Christmas lights.  Of course this is after the obligatory nap or time of relaxing to deal with the full stomach and turkey lathargy.



Nap time for Bea and Kevin

Tech time with Ipads and phones for the younger set

Amber has to do the obligatory styling of Hannah's hair.  Always turns out so great - sadly this is not a skill mom's that good at : (

 

Then the "girls" all gathered much to Hannah and Lauren's delight to play Barbies in Hannah's room.

The guys got busy putting the lights up.

Then it was a game of Apples to Apples and some dessert.

Finally after viewing the light display it was time to call it a day and end a great Thanksgiving.

                                                           Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving  - Lynda        

Happy Thanksgiving

Today after all the work of preparing the meal and our home, we'll sit down and enjoy the traditions we've set as a family for this day.   The turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry/orange relish and croissants will all be served.  This year there are 3 desserts to choose from and of course a nice cup of coffee to wash it down.

Then once our meal has settled to burn some of those delicious, but many calories we head out front and put up the first of our Christmas lights.  This marks for us the beginning of our holiday season.

It's some of the many blessings that I am truly thankful for on this day that we take time to thank the Lord for all He does and blesses us with.  For a healthy family that brings such fullness and joy, our home that shelters us and gives a comfortable environment to live in and enjoy.  The love we have for each other. 

We send our love and best to you all on this Thanksgiving day and throughout the year.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!!

Lynda and the whole Carr family.

Preparations

It's that time of year when I become a lot more familiar with my local markets and their particular specials as I plan my lists for holiday meal shopping.  This year has included some extra prepping as
we have a lot of extra family coming to visit!  Thanksgiving day will be a smaller gathering of our family, Amber and Eddie and Eddie's sister Erika.

Then this weekend we'll be having a LOT more company as my parents and extended family members will be arriving to visit.  So with 21 mouths to feed my preparation list has been in the works for a couple weeks.  I've already cooked a full ham and a turkey.  We'll have our meal tomorrow for Thanksgiving, then on Friday I've been putting together some homemade soups, and for Saturdays lunch sandwiches from all the meat leftovers, along with side salads and finger foods.

For dinner it's a combined effort with my sister- in- law. I've made my basic meat spaghetti sauce and a vodka cream sauce to serve over the noodles.  Karla is bringing Pizza and garlic bread.  We'll have salad and a variety of desserts to choose from.

With all the kids that will be here, we'll have plenty of snacks and activities to keep them happy.  I've enlisted Cameron's help to set up the Wii with multi player games, and the girls are excited about more playmates to have fun with. 

It will be nice seeing everyone, for now I'm busy, busy, busy!!  Have a great day, it's time for me to get back to work.

Happy Birthday Cameron

Today is Cameron's 19th birthday!!  I can't believe my "little guy", now towers over me and has grown to be such a fine young man.  I wrote last year when he turned 18 the story of how he came to be in our lives.  You can see that here, in the post "do you believe in miracles?"

He is a total gift from God to us and we have been blessed to be his family.  He's a smart, funny and talented guy who is a great older brother for his sisters who adore him and an incredible son.  I can write these without embarassing him, as he hasn't seen my post and that's just a mom's perogative right?

He's decided he wants to celebrate by going to Claimjumpers Restaurant for dinner this evening, then we'll head over to Amber and Eddie's new apartment to open gifts and have some cake.

So as we all celebrate Cameron's birthday and look forward to a fun day, I hope you all have a great day too.

Adding Another Year

It's that time of year again, when I add another digit to my accumulation of them.  Seems they just roll around faster each time!!  My kids ask, " so do you feel older"?  Not really, until I look in the mirror and wonder who in the world is staring back at me.

So how to celebrate this day when there's so much to get done and everyone wants me to relax and enjoy my day.  Okay - get up early, as is my habit.  Spend some quiet time in prayer and the word.
Coffee, don't care if I have to fix this myself or not : )  Then take advantage of the offers to have Cameron guide the girls through schooling. Now with this added time off I ...

Visit Pinterest sites and find all kinds of great craft, decorating and recipe ideas.

Read: 



Finally, getting around to a book I've had on my shelf for awhile.  There is More, by Randy Clark.
It's a shorter one and I've managed to get half way through already as I enjoy my day of leisure.

Blog Hop:



This is a way to pass time in a fun way and enjoy being lazy. I did get ambitious when I came across a tutorial on adding a signature to your posts.  After getting quite frustrated with trying to create one and do the HTML thing I finally just created  a signature on IPiccy and then pasted it as a picture on my blog.  We'll see how that works at the bottom this post.  Will have to try the other routes on a day I have more patience.

Finally, celebrate:

Amber and Eddie are coming over tonight to have dinner with us.  Something simple here at home that Kevin is putting together so I don't have to cook.  Cameron's birthday is Saturday and we had already decided to go out to dinner then, so I suggested we just combine the events in one night out instead of two.  They all still insisted we needed to do something tonight - so okay anything's fine with me if I don't need to cook it.  That's reason enough to celebrate.


Have a great day and I'll enjoy mine too.

Okay, needs some work.

School Resources and Thanksgiving

I mentioned a few posts back that I had been searching sites for teaching resources with regards to Thanksgiving and wound up with a computer malware virus from an online video.  So after Kevin diligently worked to restore my computer I was a bit hesitant to download anything.

I then went back through the materials I had on hand from early schooling on this subject with Amber and Cameron, plus a few that have been added since those days.  I was pleasantly surprised that I had a  good supply already and could simply add a few activities to make a usable unit study.

I started with background history to help understand this countries beginnings and the groups that first came to settle and why.

I used the DVD,  First Landing that was put out by CBN.  This story follows the trials of the early Jamestown settlement and lays a foundation for the later arrival of the Pilgrims. 

I then had Hannah read the children's book by Ann McGovern ...If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620.  This is a well written and illustrated book that gives factual information as well as the reality of life on the voyage and once you arrived  as life would be for a child at this time.  The reality of how difficult it was, how hard the kids had to work as well as the adults.  An appreciation of things we take for granted every day as simple as cutlery, chairs to sit in for meals, our availability of food, a bed to sleep in not a trundle or sleeping loft.  Then when the kids did have some leasure time their games were with simplistic found or hand made objects.

It offers a well written story of life at this time that is easy for kids to see and understand.  After going through the book with Hannah, I had her read the book and cover what she had learned with Lauren. It's always interesting to hear what points really stood out for your kids as they tell their version of what they've heard and learned.

The next book we are still going through is The Pilgrims' First Thanksgiving, also by Ann McGovern.  This book also deals with the Pilgrims voyage and the trials of beginning in this new land.  The dangers and hardships they had to overcome.  The realities of a heavy mortality rate for these early settlers, and the inner strength they had to draw on in holding to their faith and working to survive those very difficult early years.

The blessing of their meeting and interactions with Indians willing to help them and show them how to survive and thrive and the reasons for what would become known as the first Thanksgiving.  Also, the foods they would have eaten then as opposed to what we consider traditional fare today.

Then finally to have some fun and mix it up a bit, we will be watching this week when we complete this second book,  the Peanuts Classic A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.  It will probably stand in stark contrast to the realities of life for those on the Mayflower, but will round out our study in preparation for our own Thanksgiving celebration.   I also intend to let the girls help with some of the cooking preparations and table setting to play their own roles in Thanksgiving traditions for us.

Have had the girls do some of their own drawings and colored some pictures I had in my old files of Pilgrims.  All in conjunction with what they've learned.  So as we celebrate they will have this history lesson under their belts and a better understanding of what the holiday is about.

Still busy making my lists and purchases in preparation for our meal.  After reading these materials for their schooling, I have to say how thankful it makes me for the ease of our ability to buy and prepare our meals today.  For the homes we have to live in and the rich abundance of blessings we have on any given day!!