Thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving at my mother's house this year.  My sister, Kathy, and my brother David, and their families were all there, also a few cousins from my mom's side.  We enjoyed the traditional fair, turkey, ham, dressing, three different pies, and everything that you'd expect at Thanksgiving.   After dinner we were able to walk the family farm.  There were sections of the road that required quite nimble footwork because of mud and an amazing amount of deer scat.  (I thought how this was probably the reality of the road our pioneer ancestors walked. There skirts were always covered in filth.)  The evening was finished by the annual snowflake cutting, and then we helped mom get up her Christmas tree. 

Kaitlin drove up for the weekend and met us at grandma's.   The day after, we went as a family to see Big Hero 6, which was way cute.  This weekend we also got the tree up, bought some new Christmas stockings (our first ones ever that weren't from the dollar store)  and made our first batch of Christmas treats.

Today in church, Jared got to play the donkey in the children's class Christmas story. He carried Mary on his back very well.   Kaitlin and I taught one of the children's classes and showed a filmstrip. Some of the kids had never seen one before.  My choir is practicing hard for our Christmas program.  I've had a good turn out this year,  maybe two dozen people. 

Here are a Dalek and Cyberman having Thanksgiving.

Sister Ruth

Ruth got the part of Friar Laurence in her schools production of Romeo and Juliet. It is set in a post-apocoliptic world, where traditional society has broken down, and Mother Superior Laurence has risen as the head religious figure in the town of Verona.  And why the heck not!?  She's already practicing her speeches, and we've been pondering: what does a futuristic dystopian mother nun wear exactly?

Happenings

Last Sunday Jared was the narrator for our church's annual children's program.  Jared did a good job, saying his lines and singing the songs, but Chuck and I were a little sad to think that this is our last year to have a child in the children's program.

On Thursday we met Kaitlin (it's about halfway) to see my nephew Benji in his high school production of Pirates of Penzance.  He played the first mate and did a great job.  We had such a fun time watching him and also visiting with Kaitlin.  We've gone to his shows for years now and are sad that he will be graduating.

I had a chance to go to a book party this week with my friends Amy and Lisa to support another friend, Becky, who has published her third book.  I enjoyed getting a chance to pick her brain about her writing process.

New Things

Now that we are down to two kids at home, we have been looking to upgrade to something a little more economical than the mini-van.  Since we are committed to debt free living as much as possible, and are therefor buying all things with cash, this limits our vehicle choices somewhat, but we are okay with that; we don't really expect much.   After a few months of searching, this week we found what we hope is a gem in the used car world.   Chuck spent all day Saturday cleaning it up, and it is now shiny and ready to go. He also hung a tennis ball from the garage ceiling so I will know when to stop in the garage. I think I will name it Mercury because it is a Mercury, and I had a great cat named Mercury, who was grey. 

Ruth had auditions this week for Romeo and Juliet. We thought this show was going to audition a month ago, but it had been delayed, so now it will be at the end of January, rather than December.  Ruth worked really hard on two monologues, one Shakespearean (her first attempt), and felt really good about how it went.  She has call-backs on Monday.   Ruth got a peek at the script, and while it is based on Romeo and Juliet, it is modern language. 

I hosted my book club this week.  I'm a nervous entertainer, so this was a pretty big deal for me.  We talked about the book I Am Malala  and it was a really fun time.   If you don't know, Malala is the girl who just won the Nobel Peace Prize.  While the book got a little bogged down in history (I recommend  the young readers edition) it brought up some really good topics and I learned a lot about a culture I knew very little about.

Jared went on is last scout camp out of the year, and his last as an eleven year old scout.  He finished his First Class scoutmaster conference and now just needs the board of review.  I'm surprised, because he is usually just a computer guy,  but Jared seems to really enjoy scouts.

Halloween

We made a minecraft sword out of EVA foam.  Jared and I painted it. 

Jared dressed as "Steve" from the Minecraft game.  Our sword turned out pretty cool. We bought the head from the store.

Here is a picture of Steve from Minecraft so you can compare. Though this Steve has a diamond sword, and we painted ours to be an iron sword.

I dressed as Mary Poppins.  I found the coat a week ago at Savers and spent a day doing some alterations on it.

Ruth wore her Astrid costume to school on Thursday, she got a lot of complements.  On Friday she didn't have school so we went out to lunch and ran some errands in our costumes.  Halloween is the one day a year we can go around town wearing costumes without everyone thinking we are crazy.

When Chuck got home from work he didn't want to be left out of the fun, so he dressed up too.

Jared and Chuck went trick-o-treating with our neighbors, and I got to hang out and hand out candy. It was a lovely and warm evening and we were able to visit with lots of neighbors and friends. We had over 90 trick-o-treaters.  Ruth went to two different parties. 

I posted this picture on my Tumbler to enter it into a DoctorWho Halloween contest.  The official Doctor Who tumbler picked it up and posted it on their site.  As of today, this image has been liked or re-blogged over 6,500 times. Take that library judges!