THANKSGIVING WEEK FAVES

 

I'm writing this from our hotel room in Plymouth County, MA. It's the evening of Thanksgiving and we are TIRED! Busy, fun, festive day at my husband's brother's house with our 2 daughters, one of their friends, and our niece from Scotland, her mom from CA (my husband's oldest sister), the brother and his wife and their sweet Bernese Mt dog Kyss.  And of course my in-laws. We were missing Dave's youngest sister and her 2 kids and husband, along with Dave's brother's young adult children (our niece who now lives in Canada, and our oldest nephew who is in law school in NM). It was very strange to not have the entire clan gathered around the table.

 But...we are in the area where it all began....that very first Thanksgiving about 400 years ago....and many of you know that my husband's family are direct descendants from one of the men who came over on the Mayflower. This is an important holiday in their eyes.  For those of us who are believers, we give thanks every day all year round and so I'm here to share FIVE of my FAVE blessings from the week....all of these are things to thank God for.   I'm linking up at Susanne's site where other bloggers do the same. 

Our backyard pear tree (center)

and large maple (left)

Sunday 17 November

• CONTINUED COLOR:  Our pear tree earlier this week was just glorious in the autumn sunshine. It continues to have vibrant color but I'm guessing by the time we are home late Saturday evening, the leaves will be mostly on the ground. I'm thankful for the beautiful autumn colors that are lingering this year well into late November. 

Xmas decorating has begun!
I went with blue lights on the stair railing in living room this year

• DECOR BEGUN!  I began the outdoor Christmas decorating on Saturday because it was warm, sunny and I didn't want to wait until Dec 1st this year.  I only did the porch post with evergreens and the white lights and will do the rest of the porch once the pumpkins, autumnal flowers, and hay bales are all thrown out.  Since I was decorating with the artificial evergreens, I decided I might as well do the indoor stairs railing as well and chose the blue lights for this year. I also found wonderful suction cup candles with white lights (our fave...SO classy) for our windows. Because we upgraded to Renewal by Anderson windows, if we add anything to the windows or frames that  could possibly damage them, the lifetime warranty goes out the window (no pun intended) so I am just doing one candle in each window on the front of the house plus the window in the dining room. I ordered them via Amazon and they're perfect! They came with a remote so I can program them in to come on at a certain time in the evening and stay on for up to 6 hours. Everything gets lit come Dec 1st.  Our newer, smaller tree will go in the living room once I'm back from MA and that also has the white lights. Over the course of next week, I will begin decorating each room of the house. I go kind of minimalist but each room will have a nativity and other classic Christmas decorations. My style tends to be "natural/woods/country" type decor. I'm thankful I can take my time with this now that I'm retired. 

Erie Canal
at Vischer Ferry Nature Preserve
Looking east

back side of Bird View Loop Trail

Bird View Loop Trail
wetlands on the left; woods to the right

• MID-DAY HIKE! Monday at noon, I had a chiropractic appointment, so after that, I drove over to the nature preserve in that town for a 45 minute hike on a trail I rarely walk. This preserve is only 10 min north of our home. There are several different loop trails and one long walking path along the canal. I took one I rarely hike on.  It's called the Bird View Trail and in the spring and summer you can see all kinds of birds, herons, etc. Monday was a glorious day...a bit brisk but I had a hat and gloves plus a wool sweater.  There were 8 cars in the main parking lot (none in the other 2 lots along that stretch of preserve) and yet I only saw one man walking his dog and then I saw another hiker starting on the trail that I was finishing up.  He was at the beginning of the loop and I was just looping back around to the beginning where it then turns into the stick of the lollipop loop. (for those of you unfamiliar with this hiking term the trail is like a lollipop...you begin straight like the stick and then it loops to the left, up and around and back to main trail (Stick).  It was a 1.5 mile hike and it felt so good to be out in nature on a glorious, crisp cold mid-autumn day.  I'm thankful for places where I can get in a quick hike before doing housework and errands. 

First snow of Autumn 2023
Wednesday morning about 6: 30 AM
22 November

• SAFE!  Wednesday morning in New York State, and parts of New England, the weather was all over the place. We woke up, in the Capital Region, to a covering (Dave measured it at a half-inch) of snow.  One sister woke up to about 3 inches of snow in central NY and my other 2 sisters about 45 minutes north of us, woke up to 5 inches of snow!  Our snow was gone by 8 AM and when we left for the long drive to Plymouth County MA the weather was grey, windy, and pouring rain.  Our youngest daughter left her apartment Wednesday at about 12:30 and arrived safely at my brother in law's house by 4 pm. (she stayed with Peter and Kathy as she likes to help with their dog).  Our oldest daughter brought her friend Nate to his parents house outside of the north shore area of Boston and then traveled south through the city to the same hotel where Dave and I are staying.  She and her young friend Kai (who is from Kansas and recently moved here  to the east coast and didn't have time off from work to travel all the way back to Kansas) arrived safely around 5: 30 pm. After spending some time with the kids' grandparents (Dave's folks) we then drove over to my brother in law's home where our orders of Thai food were waiting. We enjoyed an evening of food and just  catching up with each other.  I was so thankful we all had safe trips on the Mass Pike which was heavy with traffic to all the way to Plymouth. 

left to right:  Hanna (age 32,our niece from Scotland)
Claire (our youngest age 24), Betty (my mother-in-law)
Courtney (our oldest daughter, age 30) and in the wheelchair is my father-in-law 

Peter and Kathy's great room
This is the dining area, all set for the Feast
(Dave's older brother and his wife live in the same town as my in-laws)

These little candles were our favors this year.....
the theme was honey bees....so cute.....

my youngest daughter Claire and I went on a beautiful walk on Thanksgiving morning
with Peter and Kathy's dog Kyss. We walked for a little over a mile. 
She's actually a therapy Bernese Mt Dog and is the sweetest dog
we've ever known. Super obedient and just a doll. 

The town river in the Hockamock Swamp 
across the road from Pete and Kathy's home 

• FAMILY TIME! Thanksgiving morning, Dave, Kai (Courtney's friend) and I all had breakfast and then Dave and I drove down to my inlaws where Dave was going to put together the stuffing; I dropped him off and headed over to Pete and Kathy's where Claire had an amazing mug of *$ coffee waiting for me. (the hotel coffee was sub-optimal haha). We helped out with some hors d'oeuvres for the Feast and then drove over together to pick up the pies from my mother in law's house. Hanna had made the pies the day before with Claire's help as my mother in law can no longer manage it. After getting back to Pete's house, Claire and I walked the dog and spent some time together while Courtney and Kai helped my sister in law Karen. It was Karen's turn to cook the Feast this year. All of dave's siblings take turns. This year there were only 11 of us.  When Claire was a 2 yr old we would gather at the beach house the family used to own on the Cape and there would be 32 of us. This year Dave's youngest sister decided not to join us. Things are changing as my in-laws get older and more frail. We are starting to re-think the way we do Thanksgiving as a clan. However, I'm super thankful everything turned out ok.  Karen had decided that she would order the bulk of the food from a local restaurant which really cut down on the chaos in the kitchen. My father in law was SO very happy to see 3 of his grandchildren out of the 7 that they have.  We had a great time and in the evening, we had a blast playing the Generation Gap game that Dave and I brought. I'm thankful we had a joyous Thanksgiving. 

That wraps up my fave list of the week. I"m finishing this post this morning in the hotel fireplace area where we're having coffee and planning the day. We most likely will end up going to Peter and Kathy's lakeside cottage to show Courtney and Hanna who haven't been there yet. Plus, it's a beautiful day out. We will probably do an easy hike somewhere as well.  Lunch will probably be out somewhere and dinner will most likely be whatever leftovers there are. The family time is a blessing for sure.