happy thanksgiving!

"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."
Gilbert K. Chesterton

we are thankful this year to be close enough to have robin's parents over for our noon meal. i am thankful for all the hands of help i had in the kitchen, and for a husband who lets me nap afterwards. we had a wonderful thanksgiving eve church service last night. we had so. much. food. and lots of leftovers. good times, good memories. i did forget to get the ingredients for our traditional turkey candies but karis saved the day, even though she couldn't find candy corn, mike and ikes made a more colorful turkey.

landis valley museum

another benefit of the library is a free family museum pass to some local museums. we were planning on going to another museum about an hour away, but their special festivities were cancelled due to the weather. it turned out to be for the best anyway, since it was only gray and slightly drizzly and robin got to go with us. the girls were all busy, so it was just me and the boys. fun!

they already had the visitor center decorated for christmas. the museum shop was having an open house, with carolers dressed in time period garb and free refreshments. jack saw his awana teacher, and robin met up with an old co-worker.

i love it all, but i especially liked the school house. that is, until the boys got carried away in their make believe outhouse adventure (but all that pretending did send us on a quest to find the nearest "real" bathroom).
silly boys.

loving

we are soooo loving fall............

neighborhood gatherings

have been happening frequently around here, mostly in the under 13 crowd.
our kids haven't had trees of their own in a while to make piles of leaves in, so they were eager to start raking.

they quickly gained a gathering of followers.the gloves prevent the "red hots" (rope burns).

(click to enlarge)

some just got buried.
some buried themselves.all had a great time.

enjoying seasons

(the view from our pumpkin trip to the amish farm)

"fall"

we do get brown leaves in "fall" which is usually the end of december.

our neighbor on the corner, jim, faithfully rakes his pecan leaves (we don't have any trees that lose their leaves all at once) so that the kids can jump in them. this year only olivia, jack and mike wanted to. pete probably would've, but he was taking a nap at the time.