December Fun

In no particular order, this is what we've been up to so far in December...

Truman's den visited the fire station:

Tommie & I painted the rest of the front living room, entry, dining room and hallway. Goodbye icky yellow color! I'll try to post a picture when we get the trim up and it's all decorated and finished.

Franklin was home sick one day, so he & Max spent the day cuddled under blankets.

I baked and baked and baked. We ended up with enough cookies to have our fill and give out 8 dozen to the neighbors. I copied my friend Randi's recipe and made doggie treats this year. Max is giving a goodie bag of doggie treats to all of his friends in the neighborhood too. They turned out really well!

Franklin has been spending a lot of time with his LEGOs lately... Tommie helped him build a tower up to the ceiling yesterday. Should we be concerned?!? *smile*

Gingerbread House Party

We invited our former neighbors over for a fun afternoon of gingerbread house making and hot chocolate! Amber & the kids are a lot of fun to hang out with - we miss living right next door!!

The Payne fam made a gingerbread train this year... Choo - Choo!

Thanksgiving Day 2009

All digiscrap pieces parts are from "Give Thanks" by Stacey's Scraps.

Giving Thanks

Yes, it does seem that these two got their holidays mixed up. I guess my father-in-law decided that since Santa makes his appearance at the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade that it was okay to wear this to Thanksgiving dinner!

Aunt Karen & I seem to be wearing more appropriate colors!

Tommie, his mom & brother working very hard on the puzzle. The senior center always has a puzzle out on the table. When we go there for a holiday gathering, the family usually completes the puzzle. I always wonder if there are hacked off old people come Monday.

Harrison and Great-Grandma Barker

Franklin and Truman with their Thanksgiving wishes for Great Grandpa Barker.

Great Grandpa Barker was unable to join us at the family gathering this year. He has been diagnosed with bone cancer and not given very long to live. He was placed in the nursing home 2 days before Thanksgiving. We were especially thankful to spend time with him this Thanksgiving.

My dad helping Truman hold up his magnetix string. We spent part of the weekend with my parents, though we missed the Majeres family Thanksgiving dinner.

Harrison received an unpleasant gift - road rash! He was riding the skateboard on his belly and hit a bump. The skateboard stopped while he kept going. Ouch!

My parents love it when I take random pictures of them resting... can you tell?

Rescue Mission

Last year, we started what I hope will be a long standing Thanksgiving tradition. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, we served at the local rescue mission - handing out food to those in need. The mission gathers donations and has everything all set up. The recipients attend a short chapel service, then file through the line. Volunteers assist with moving the boxes along the assembly line and getting to know the recipients while additional volunteers put food into the box as they pass by. The boys are really good at helping unbox the canned goods and restocking the supply at the tables. They remember serving last year and were really looking forward to it again this year. I love watching the joy that my children experience from giving to others!

This year, a "special guest" was on hand... a silly guy dressed as a turkey! He was a big hit!

Raingutter Regatta

The boys participated in the annual Cub Scout Raingutter Regatta. There are awards in various categories for boat decorations, as well as medals for 1st, 2nd and 3rd in each grade level and trophies for the overall winners. The boys each picked a theme they wanted to try to win a decoration award for. Franklin decorated his boat for the Most Stickers, Harrison went for the Patriotic theme and Truman's football boat was in the Sports theme category. All three had a great time decorating their boats and Truman won for his category! All three boys raced better this year than last, but none won a medal in their age bracket. Overall, the Regatta was a really fun experience for everyone!

November Update

I guess we've been pretty busy lately, so I'm going to post a fly-by blog post to catch you up on all of our happenings!

Tommie hung the Christmas lights on the roofline (and didn't even die!)...

Tommie & I went on a date night... dinner & a hockey game - awesome!The boys (and the rest of my den) had a Thanksgiving food drive to fill a basket for local families...

Truman earned his Bobcat badge and all 3 of the boys received all of the belt loops they've earned at our November pack meeting...
STOMP toured in town, but made a special visit to the boys' elementary school (the only one in the area that had a special presentation!)... so cool!!
We got the boys' pictures taken at Sears... (this is a pic that isn't going to make the Christmas card cut! ha, ha)