This and That

We had our big Thanksgiving dinner (for my mother's side of the family) this past weekend. Ri posted our menu and we had no last minute changes this year. It all went off pretty much as I had planned, thanks to my mom. I had told everyone to be there at 12:00 (2hrs. earlier than we normally have it becuase of my older brother's work schedual) and that I wanted to draw names for our Christmas present exchange first to make sure it was done before my brother would have to leave. I had the names ready and waiting in a bowl when everyone arrived and mom took charge of making sure everyone drew names for their family, gathered all the information I needed, and took down gift suggestions while I finished up with dinner. By the time she was finished, dinner was ready to serve. Several people were unable to make it this year so we ended up with quite a few leftovers, but that's alright with me. After cooking for two days it suits me just fine to be able to pull supper out of the fridge with nothing more required than a quick re-heating. We'll have a small dinner with my father, step-mother, and younger brother this coming Friday, and since we had no plans for Thanksgiving Day, Ri was invited by Superman's mother to join them Thurs. for their dinner. His mom was kind enough to extend the invitation to the whole family, but as Grandma is not feeling well (I had to take her to the doctor after our dinner on Sat.), Kay has volunteered to stay at home with her.

I've decided that our ? (computer, sewing, school...) room will, from now on, be called the wreck room.  It sounds kind of fun just saying it. I'm sure people will get the inpression of a room filled with video games/equipment and a foosball or pool table, but you know the play on words will be plenty of fun for me.  I did finish the valance for that room last weekend.

Not exactly your typical "rec" room decor, but hey, just

perfect for room dominated by four sewing machines.

I thought the homespun went well with the bears.

A couple of them even have homespun dresses or bows.

I used a decorative stich to put a small detail on the underlayer.

I do enjoy my sewing machine.

My younger brother brought over all the dirt he used in his buckets this year and put it out on my garden. He uses new dirt every year because growing veggies in buckets tends to deplete the soil of it's nutrients. It wouldn't be so bad if he could compost the organic matter back into the soil, but the buckets won't allow the organic matter to get warm enough to break down and he has no place to make a compost pile, so my garden will reap the benefits. It makes me all ready to sit down and plan out next year's garden. My older brother and I got to spend some time talking with one of our cousins Saturday about gardening. This past summer was the first year she ever grew a garden so we encouraged her and shared a couple of tips. I hope to get another chance to talk with her more about it at our Christmas party; maybe even get both my brothers in on the conversation this time.

Mmmmm, spring isn't THAT far away!