An Autumn Weekend

 
Autumn is in full swing around here - vibrant color, falling leaves, perfect pumpkins and a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with family and friends! And the weather has been fabulous - sunny, fresh and wonderful for outdoor activity. Here is a round up of some of the highlights of our gorgeous October holiday weekend! I was sitting having my coffee when these two yellow maple leaves drifted down and settled on this pretty rusty mum on our back step - so lovely!

There are still lots of gloriously hued leaves on our maples and oaks but they are
beginning to fall and swirl about the yard. 
Ethel is beside herself romping in them
 and chasing them as the breeze flutters them around the lawn.

 

 

I love to set a table and special occasions are a wonderful chance to show guests how happy I am to have them join us.  And then I love to take photos of it! Here are a few from Thanksgiving dinner.

 

We are going to be away for Christmas this year so my niece and I decided to combine holiday dinners this weekend - we celebrated 'Chris-giving' or was it 'Thank-mas'... there were 12 for dinner and we were so glad to have everyone there!





 

A smattering of gold stars and a few sparkly ornaments in orange and purple celebrated autumn

with just a hint of Christmas. On Saturday morning, Sophie, her best friend and I set up shop to create sweet felted acorn ornaments, also in orange, purple and red, to dangle from the branches in the centerpiece.

 

 

'The girls' helping to arrange the table.
 



 

 

Saturday night's dessert was these yummy rice crispie squares pumpkins (found on Pinterest).  We used food coloring to 'orange' them up and fondue chocolate for their stems.

 

 

There's a turkey in that there pot!!!

 We tried a couple of times to deep fry a turkey - and have always ended up putting it in the oven.  It's hard to properly cook it all the way through this way.  Hubs and my brother-in-law were determined and it was a resounding success! perfectly delicious (and we had a back up on the BBQ rotisserie, just in case :).

Happy October!



It's Been a Wonderful Summer

thank you.

Christmas Dinner in Who-Ville

When we built our new house, one of my dreams was to have a dining room that would accommodate EVERYONE for Christmas dinner...and this Christmas, it was so! It was our absolute pleasure to host 23 members of our family and friends for my favorite Christmas day ever! A Who-ville theme seemed perfect -- I could just see all the Who's seated at their long tables filled with fun, family, friends and fabulous food! Six different families (all related in some way by at least one member) gathered at our house and of course, everyone needed to know their proper Who name... www.grinched.com provides a great tool to help come up with these fun names -- we had Dibble-Moo-Who's and Tickle-Poo-Who's and Giggle-Boo-Who's coming out of the woodwork. I made nametags for everyone and the kids made sure everyone had their own. I also found this great lime green Grinchy tree at HomeSense and couldn't resist. My friend gave me the other funky one (I must admit, I'm a bit of a Who-Ville addict) a couple of years ago.

Red and white, stripes and dots and any wonderfully unique ornament I could find filled the tree, table and house. I even found some great red dishes in the clearance section of the grocery store and picked them up too-- LOVE them!

...and here is the crowd!