Over the River and thru the Woods, to Grandmother's House we go....

Well, maybe in the song that's how it happens, but for this grandmother-to-be it's more like over the rivers and up the freeway to my kids' houses I go. For Thanksgiving I drove up the freeway about 190 miles to spend the holiday at my daughter and son-in-law's home. But first there was a stop at my son and his family's home. Eric and Jannaeah both had to work the next day and chose to stay at their own home for Thanksgiving. Jannaeah made a butternut squash pie for me to take with me to Sara's...yumm. So here they are: About an hour later I arrived at Greg and Sara's home. They were expecting 7 guests in addition to me and the cooking was in full swing when I walked in the door. Everything smelled heavenly. Each guest was assigned a category of food to bring, but the specifics were left up to the cook. We had a wonderful savory apple/bacon tart appetizer from Kim; three delicious appetizers from Kristen - a shrimp one, an artichoke one and one of cream cheese with a cranberry/orange chutney, and some yummy green beans; Alexis's famous brussel sprouts, delicious rolls and a wonderful squash risotto; and I brought an apple pie. The hostess cooked the turkey, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes and giblet gravy, a caramel toffee cheesecake and a chocolate peppermint three layer cake. Wine, beer and juices were also available. This is a bit blurry and does not show everything but it was my plate as I started to eat.

Before eating each person got a chance to say what they were thankful for this year. It's always a moving experience as some people wax poetic. After eating our fill we played a couple games that created much laughter and playful banter. What a wonderful day spent with family and friends.

I headed home the next day after being able to grab a rare photo of Greg and Sara - who do not like to pose for the camera.

Thank you, my dears, for a wonderful couple days, for the hospitality, the fun, and just being able to spend time with two of my favorite people.

Scrapping time

Yesterday I spent about six hours at a crop at a local church. We meet once a month and usually have about 20 people attend each time. It was a perfect day to be inside as it poured off and on all day. It was so grey about 2:00 we thought it was closer to 5 pm. Thought I would share my favorite layout that I did.

While Halloween is not my favorite holiday, I do love all the fall decorations that seem to peak in time for trick or treaters. So here's my tribute to the holiday. The small photo is of my little neighbor girl, Zoe, who was a black fairy - with pink hair. One of the larger photos was of a home other than mine, and other one is of my little pumpkins lining my front steps.

A Quilt for my Son

My son celebrated his 40th birthday yesterday. In honor of this momentous occasion, I made a rag quilt. I am famous in my family for starting homemade gifts and not finishing until months or years later, or not at all; so the fact that I have finished this on his birthday and will mail it to him today is also momentous. He loves to fish, so I was able to find a fish printed flannel and several other bolts of masculine looking flannel to coordinate. Here is the finished product after being washed and dried twice to get most of the bitty strings of fabric out of it.

Happy Birthday, Eric!!!

Election Day and a playday in Eugene

It's been an historic year with a woman almost getting the Democratic nomination for president, a black man winning the Democratic nomination, the oldest candidate ever running as thCocoa e Republican presidential nominee and another woman being chosen as the vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket. Record numbers of Americans have already voted in the early voting process. And personally, I have never been so engaged in the process since JFK ran for President when I was a first time voter. So, whomever you support, get out and vote today - be part of an historic election.

On another topic, I drove to Eugene on Saturday to be part of the play time Eugene event sponsored by Cocoa Daisy.This is the second time I've been part of this fun time of crafting, laughing, sharing and learning from Ali Edwards - this time about the construction of her December Daily Album. Jill is a wonderful hostess and taught us how to make a really easy project. Shopping in the creative boutique and eating Ali's delicious raspberry cobbler filled out the rest of the 3 hour event. We take a group photo every time - in front of a neighbor's colorful tree this time.

And here's a photo of my finished project. Everyone's was different as we cut the chipboard to suit our photos. Some people left them all 4 X 6, some cut them as I did, some taped them together, and one gal was going to run a ribbon behind them all with spaces in between each panel.

So that's it for today. Hope you have a good one. And don't forget to vote.