Before I Take It All Down

I put up my fall decorations right before my surprise vacation to sunny Loma Linda, and now, suddenly, it's time to take them all down. Where did November go? I never really had a chance to enjoy them.  But maybe some of you sweet people who brought meals or gave rides to my kids  were able to enjoy the decorations.    So before I take them all down, I'd thought I'd take a few pictures and post them.

The pictures don't capture it, but most of my fall decor is pretty sparkly.  I know glitz isn't a traditional fall thing, but I love it and had a fun time putting a little bling into my decor.

Those pumpkins are covered in glass microbeads that just glow when the door opens and sunlight hits them.

Fun find.  After Halloween Michael's had all their fall flower arrangements 75% off.  I found two matching topiaries for only $11 each.  They are perfect for those niches, and I love the sparkling butterflies made from feathers.  It's always the details that do it for me.  I also got the glittery "Give Thanks" banner in the after-Halloween 75% off bin.  Go figure.  Maybe because it was orange. It was $2.50.  All my beady garlands and wreaths you see were also 75% off at Michael's.

 You can always get great deals on fall stuff way before Thanksgiving, because the stores want to get rid of it to make room for all the Christmas merchandise.

I couldn't get enough of the luxurious satin orange ribbon.  I use it everywhere (TPT $11 for 25 yards!)

I bought this turkey for $19 at TaiPan (reg. $49).  It was brown resin.  I glitzed it up by spray-painting it, and a few of the small gourds and decorative squash, a shiny metallic gold.  

The pictures are dull, but he absolutely gleams and I love, love, love, my Midas-touched turkey.

This is the first year I really felt like my fall decorations came together.  

Now on to the biggie - Christmas decorations.  Oh my!

Five Kernels of Corn

I love candy corn, and I love traditions, so if I find with a tradition that uses candy corn, I'm doin' it.

Every year my kids make little packets of five candy corns in a piece of netting tied with raffia.

We pass them out to everybody at the Thanksgiving table.  Before anyone takes a bite of the Thanksgiving feast before them, one of us reads this:

Pilgrims had a custom of putting five kernels of corn on each plate before Thanksgiving dinner was served.  In many old Plymouth families, the custom is still followed today.  The five kernels of corn were chosen because prior to the first harvest, things were so bad that the daily ration was five kernels of corn per person per day.  Imagine how grateful the survivors of the first horrible winter were for the abundant first harvest!  The pilgrims put five kernels of corn on their plates to remind them of their great blessings.  Let us also remember.

The first kernel of corn reminds us of the autumn beauty around us.

The second kernel of corn reminds us of our love for each other.

The third kernel of corn reminds us of God's love for us.

The forth kernel of corn reminds us of our friends.

The fifth kernel of corn reminds us that we are a free people.

Another tradition, along the same lines, is the blessing snack mix we make and give to another family.  It is easy, just a matter of dumping the different ingredients together. This is what it says on the tag:

Blessing Mix

This mix was made just for you and your family.

Enjoy it as you discuss the blessings that the ingredients represent.

Bugles (chips)- shaped like cornucopia, it represents the horn of plenty.

Pretzels - represent our arms folded in thanks and prayer.

Candy Corn - during their first winter the pilgrims were each allotted 5 kernels of corn each day as food was scarce.

Dried Fruit - Thanksgiving is the celebration of the harvest.

Nuts and Seeds - Seeds represent the potential of a bounteous harvest for the next season of they are planted well and tended.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Even though this Thanksgiving was the craziest ever for our family, these traditions are too simple and too important not to do.  I'm so glad we did, because this year, more than ever before, we needed to be reminded of how much we have to be thankful for.

Fall in Oregon

This past weekend I got to take a girl weekend to visit my sister, Mindy, and her family who recently moved to the Portland area, and attend Time Out for Women while I was there.  Fall had just fallen, so it was chilly, wet, and the leaves were fuchsia, yellow, and orange.  It was spectacular!  What a treat for this poor desert rat.

Though Mindy lives it town, just beyond her door is the country.  Every drive is beautiful with pretty little farms dotting the landscape.  I wish I would have taken more pictures, but with the recent passing of my dear camera, I was at the mercy of my Dad's camera.  Thanks for sharing, Dad.

Fir Point Farms was a great little farm not far from Mindy's. In fact, it was so great, we visited it twice.  Here we are standing in front of a giant pumpkin weighing in at over 1,300 lbs.!  At this farm they have a yearly pumpkin smashing where they get a crane and drop a giant pumpkin like this on a donated vehicle.  Sorry we missed that!

Mindy's baby Zach, myself, and Mindy on a pile of almost red Cinderella pumpkins.

Zach in a maze of pumpkins.

Pumpkins weren't the only giant produce at Fir Point Farms.  Check out these HUGE cabbages.  Zach is in there for size comparison.

Dad is about to take on a giant apple that they call the "one apple for a pie" apple.  That will keep the doctor away, for sure!

Here is a really cool old building we saw.  There was grass growing on the roof and it was tangled with old dead vines.  I love cool old stuff like this! 

We visited another local farm, Lee Farm.  It wasn't as fun the last farm, but they did have incredible homemade apple cider doughnuts and these darling little chicks!  

They also had a TON of pumpkins!

These bootiful witch hats were on sale at Fir Point Farms.  They are glitzy, frilly, curl at the top and have sequined spiders hanging off the rim.  Hazel, Hilda, and I, being the wicked witches we are, just couldn't resist.  We each bought one.  Don't we looking spooktacular, darling?

After our TOFW event at the convention center, the rest of the family met us downtown for dinner at Kenny & Zukes, a place known for it's pastrami, with a real downtown Portland feel.  Here I am drinking Birch Beer, a red homemade root beer.  So good.  Look out the window behind me.  There were a whole group of people waiting outside a hotel for the trolley.  They were a bunch of drag queens dressed like royalty with crowns, etc- a pretty sight.  Mindy's 5 year old Avery was so excited and said, "Look at all those princesses!"  Boy, they would have loved to have heard that, wouldn't they?

Portland is an interesting place.

Here we all are a Kenny & Zukes.  Of course I had the Reuben sandwich - what else would you get in a pastrami joint?  It was tasty, and the potato salad was off-the-charts great.

As evening came we took a walk along the river.  There are so many bridges in Portland, kind of reminding me of the Arno River in Florence - except totally different.  The reflection of lights in the river was beautiful.

Mindy, Me, Mom

Here is Mindy's beautiful family in their beautiful new hometown.

The next day Mindy drove us up the Colombia River to Multnomah Falls, a tall, double waterfall spilling though the forest and fall foliage.  This is a dry season, so the falls usually have much more water, but it was lovely to us.

To get to the falls you have to walk under a train track.  There happened to be a train going by at the moment.  You could look up and see the underside of the train as it sped over just inches above your head.  It was violent and loud.  Really wild!  Here my parents and Mindy are looking up at the sight of the train whizzing by.

Zach and his Momma

Here I am at the bottom of the falls.

There was a short hike up the hill to the bridge.  Everything was so mossy.  No wonder those Portlanders are so into "green."  Its everywhere.

Cool pic looking down from the bridge.

Here's a cute picture of Mom and Dad on the bridge.  I had to hike back down and take it with the telephoto.

We traveled down the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.  What a lovely drive!  We stop at a scenic area and Mom reads the historical marker.  Cute hair mom, even with all this moisture.

The Gorge at dusk.

I just loved this sweet little "Frog Pond Chapel" just around the corner from Mindy's house.  The old steeple was so great peeking up above the flaming foliage.  I took a lot of pics, but I wish the sun was shining.

Here I am on the morning before we came home, painting some of the stunning leaves I collected in my watercolor travel journal.  I couldn't do it plein air since it was raining outside, so in the dining room next to a huge picture window was the next best thing.

Portland was beautiful and we had a lovely time.    Thanks Ben and Mindy!  Mindy's kids thought Aunt Shelly was just super fun.  They couldn't get enough of me.  I don't think I am as popular at home, but I was on vacation, right?  I didn't have to be the mean mom the whole time.  I sure missed my guys though, and I KNOW that Dennis, and the boys, missed me.  They sure were happy to see me back home.

Harvest Time

On Saturday we dug out our sweaters, dusted them off, and headed up to Oak Glen to visit Riley's Farm.  It was a perfectly beautiful fall day, in the 50s, and the sun was shining.  It's pumpkin pickin' time.  It didn't take long for Dylan to pick the perfect pumpkin.  Unfortunately, he couldn't pick it up.

Caleb and Luke inspect this pumpkin carefully. Caleb likes it but Luke is critical - too pale. 

Kids in the corn.

Caleb finds the perfect pumpkin.

Pumpkin Patch Kids

To each his own

Sweet Luke was having so much fun running around the farm.

Caleb picks mommy a bunch of daisies.

So many pumpkins, but only one perfect pick.

Mommy picks these two little punkins.

 Hi ho hi ho its off to pick we go...

The twinners

Dennis's new trick - spinning a pumpkin on his finger like a basketball.  Watch out Globetrotters!  Just don't dunk it, Hon.

Boys watch goats and goats watch boys.  Those goats are probably glad there was a fence between them and that wild pack of boys.

"Hi Heep! Hi Doats!"  (that's sheep and goats to you and me)

Cutie Cabes!

Workin' in the coal mine

I wish the boys would work this hard to do the dishes at home.

 Look at that big fat orange pumpkin - oh wait, that is my sweater.  I can't believe how huge that sweater makes me look.  But the fact that it was cool enough to wear a sweater is wonderful!  (BTW, I just love that man there!)

Maybe I love him because of his skills... pumpkin spinning skills, pumpkin balancing skills...

My Little Pumpkin Head!

 Just look at all those happy fall faces, well except for Luke.  Naptime.

OK right here at this point something horrible happened.  I went to take the picture, and my nice camera just stopped.  It will do everything but take a picture, and when I try it just says "error 99"  I looked it up in the troubleshooter  the instructions.  It had the meaning of the various codes.  But error 99 said " a problem other than those above".  So not helpful.  Luckily, I still had my point and shoot in the car, but the pictures aren't as good.  The really bad part is that I am leaving for Oregon on Thursday.  Oregon, fall colors, awesome pictures.  A broken camera is disastrous!  BIGGIE BUMMER. And maybe cha-ching!  I was pretty upset, but I tried not to let it ruin my day.

Luke watches the chickens being fed.

Forget leapfrog - how about leappumpkin?
Luke was working so hard on his construction project , huffing and puffing.

He was so excited when it was finished - The Leaning Tower of Pumpkins.

Nate checks out the Indian corn.  The sun was just so pretty shining through the corn.

Decisions, decisions, decisions at the candy counter.

Caleb had no problems deciding what candy he wanted - the huge jawbreaker.  Thank you Grandma V, who gave the boys jawbreaker money when we visited them on our way up to Oak Glen. 

But Caleb was justified it getting the extra-large jawbreaker, since he was planning to share it with all the farm animals.  How generous.

But he still got his fair share.  How did he get that thing in there?  Luckily, his jaw didn't actually break in the process.