The feast

Walt with his assistant, ready to carve the delicious turkey. Every family needs a surgeon to carve their turkey.

The girls are ready for the food. It was great to have Brittany and David home from school.

We had a good group at the table.

We put the guys at each end. Sue and Walt invited their new pastor and his mother for dinner.

We missed Jack but not too much. He is skiing in Switzerland so it is hard to feel too sorry for him.

I hope you had a great meal with family and friends.

Funnies and Fun

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. I thought I would share a couple of things to brighten your day. First of all, Bud found this on the opinion page of our paper. We both thought it was very funny. I hope that you think it is equally funny. We are a strange country, full of individuals with many different views. However, I am still thankful for this country where you can express all those views. I hope this cartoon made you laugh too.

Yesterday I went with a friend (this is the fun part of my post) out to lunch and then we went on to the Gwen Frostic shop. It was a gray northern Michigan day but a bright day with a friend. I was hoping to pick up some Christmas wrapping paper but they didn't have any. SO I will use up what little I have left and some of you may receive gifts this year that are not wrapped in my traditional green paper from Gwen Frostic.

Enjoy the day with family and friends. Don't eat too much turkey or watch too much football.

Travelers and teachers

Leo came up to visit on Monday. He arrived about 1:00 and we did a few errands and walked around downtown, just checking out the local sights and relaxing over coffee. He stopped on his way out to N. Dakota to visit Glen and Penny and the girls. He has 2 weeks of vacation to use up and wanted to 'get our of Dodge' for a while. He told the people at work that: "All that would keep him from returning is a $10 an hour job and a RICH woman". I told him good luck on that rich woman. He left a little after 7 yesterday (Tuesday) going the northern route. I talked to him about 9:00 last evening and he was almost to Fargo. He heard that there was a BIG storm heading his way so he thought he would just continue on through the night unless it got too bad to drive. I sent a sleeping bag with him and he had a blanket but was hoping he didn't have to use them. He sent me a text in the night. He arrived about 7:30 N.D. time so it took him a little less than 24 hours. I talked to him this morning and he said the last stretch along highway 94 going west from Bismark was pretty bad. That is the stretch that Glen plows and he was out already working. Anyway, he is safe and having coffee out there now. He is planning to stay until Sunday or Monday OR until he finds that rich woman. Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of Leo while he was here. I was up and out yesterday too. I was the guest teacher at my quilting class. I taught them how to make the wrap bowls.

Everyone had a great time and they turned out nice bowls. I helped my local quilt shop by selling some of the books and rope. It is just a little volunteer job but fun.

Tomorrow we are having Thanksgiving dinner with the Noble family and then I am heading to Grand Rapids to spend the rest of the weekend with Eva. We will be doing the 'retail' experience on Friday.

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving. I am always thankful for such a wonderful family, my terrific husband and my fortunate life here in Traverse City.

More baskets

This is my latest basket project. I am teaching my quilt group how to make these baskets tomorrow and I wanted to have another example of how you can use your creative side and make them for seasons. I think I will make this one a 'door prize' after the class. I am not that good at making lids just yet. I should have made this one a little bigger but I think it looks cute anyway.

Birthday celebration and early Thanksgiving

Yesterday we went out to the Manistee River area to visit friends and celebrate. Kathy turned 60 yesterday so we had a birthday celebration for her which was combined with Thanksgiving. They have a cabin on the Manistee River but their neighbors hosted the dinner.

Just as the sun was setting the rising moon peeked through the streak of clouds. It was much more spectacular in person with the full moon shining brightly in that little break of clouds. It was a beautiful afternoon with great food and wonderful company.

Thanksgiving week is coming and I am excited. We will spend LOTS of time with family. Leo is stopping by tomorrow and spending the night. We are having lunch on Thursday with the Noble family. After Thanksgiving dinner I am heading to Grand Rapids to spend the rest of the weekend with Eva and see Jessica too. I am SO excited to spend time with family and thankful for the time with friends yesterday.

SO Cute Santa bowl

Doesn't this look cute!!! I am teaching my quilt group how to make the bowls next week. I thought I would try to use my creative sense and come up with a bowl to show them. I worked on this one and finally settled on this design. It took a little thinking and searching for ideas before I decided how to make the beard and face. I think it turned out great. It is kind of a big bowl, about 12 inches across, but it will be a nice one to show the group and let them know that they too can be creative with their bowls.

We are all creative in our own way so try to stretch your creative mind some time today. It may lead you down a path that you never thought you would go.

POWER

POWER
How much power do we have over the power???
Today we lost our power again, fortunately it was just for a little over an hour. However, it sure leaves us powerless. How did those pioneers do it without electricity???

Being powerless is something we are not very good at. However, there are many people in this world that are powerless in so many ways.

Maybe I should practice being powerless more often. Maybe we should be more compassionate toward the powerless.

Power to the People, that was a cry from the '60s. What does that mean???

Give up a little power today??? It might be a good experiment.