What I am thankful for

Family and friends of course. Nothing is better then spending time with the people you love. Helen and William came over very early Thanksgiving Day. She explained to him that it was tradition to watch the Macy's Parade in your pj's. Later you change into sweatpants to be still comfortable. For the feast you change into nice clothes and after the meal you change back into to sweatpants because you ate so much that the nice clothes are not comfortable any more. I don't think he cares much yet what he wears.

It was a nice relaxing time. Not much to do. James did most of our part. For all those years he always cooked the Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys and the Easter lamb roast. Roast potatoes, bread sauce ... not a problem.
We had to make the table larger and used the "place mats" from William's preschool.

I was sure William's Mops and GeeGee would like to see them too. The older children in the preschool were quoted on how to cook a turkey.

 William tried a bit of everything and enjoyed it very much. What a big boy! He wore his Indian headdress from the preschool Thanksgiving feast

After the meal we had fun just talking. We always enjoy spending time with Ben's family. As Helen says "William likes it when ALL HIS PEOPLE are together".
It really had been a feast. Everybody brought something. Joy brought her sweetheart salad and cranberry sauce and Ben had cooked several southern specialties including a very special from-scratch stuffing.

And then later dessert, the pies. But by then we had moved into the living room. Grandpa and William were most comfortable sitting on the stairs. 

The boxes had been used as stair blockers but really are not needed any longer. William minds so well when you say NO.

Don't worry, William likes to help cleaning up his toys.

Haha, somebody is worn out.

And then we still had Friday.










And on Saturday we drove back to Virginia. The sun was shining and the sky was blue but it had turned cold. COLD.

Sarah and Wade had been gone too. His family always gets together for the long Thanksgiving weekend and there are long standing traditions like the Virginia Tech football game. They came back Sunday afternoon and invited us to dinner. While Sarah is preparing the dogs are waiting in case something falls down.

That made for a busy day. Church in the morning. A matinee at the Carpenter Theater (Fledermaus by Johann Strauss operetta) was super. Ah, that music ... and the memories. It's so German. We had bought the tickets a while ago. And then family time in the evening again ... including two games of bananagram.

And then Monday. Happy Anniversary to us! 37 years with this wonderful man. How lucky I am! Well, he too, ha-ha. I sent him for some groceries because the cupboard was empty and he comes back with two dozen roses. He laughs and says that they might not last (at this time of the year they usually don't) but at least our marriage does.

And since the cupboard still was a bit empty we went out for dinner. James wanted it to be very special and made reservations at "Buckhead".

Complimentary dessert. How nice.

Good things

The sun was shining most of the week, even if the air was a  bit crispier. It's Autumn after all. I had my third golf lesson and felt improved.

On Tuesday James and I played a round of golf at "The Belmont". I gave up counting pretty soon. Realized ... not there yet. But the 13th hole was a success. 5 !

My hole! 5 felt like a hole-in-one to me! Can't talk about the other 17 holes though, haha.

The weather is still so nice that we can sit outside on the back porch. We even had to drive the awning out. Tea time with a treat from the freezer. I like mine still frozen, James not. So he put the treat half in the sun, half in the shade. Easy! Cranberry bars and choco pumpkin cake.

The lady in the white pharmacist coat on the right ... that's Sarah. The Walgreens Wellness Bus came to the pharmacy were she is manager now. She suggested I take advantage of the free health check. A very good thing and I am impressed.

James' birthday dinner has to be a day early. It's the only evening when Sarah does not have to work this week. I was wavering between cooking and going out. Texas de Brazil won at the end. All four of us feel like we should live vegetarian now for at least 10 days.

The traditional Brazilien caipirinha hopefully helped with the digestion. Almost as good as the ones James and I learned to make since we were in Brazil.

To your health, James!

Good service and a very nice evening.


















October the 6th ! Anniversary of the day my dear husband was born. Happy Birthday, James!

I had to get going early though because it was also the day this year my lacemaking group was supposed to demonstrate lacemaking at the Virginia State Fair.

We had a good show of demonstrators. From the left: Gretchen, Mary, Lali, my empty chair, and Birgitte.

Also Gail and Janet opposite.

 And Carolyn explaining at the table.

It was very satisfying because many people were interested to see what we were doing. One comment: "This was the most interesting thing I saw today". Another comment: "If I don't see anything else today, this alone was worth coming for".

 I had decided to demonstrate with my German lacepillow, German bobbins, pins and pattern and ... in my mother's German dress, called a dirndl. Mother had sewn it herself from very exquisite fabric. She had asked me to tat the lace for it. She wore it on Helen's wedding day ... and looked much better in it than I. Oh, well ...

Lali is from Barcelona. This is her Spanish lacepillow with Spanish bobbins.

Saw this sign when I went outside for lunch.

 And of course we had a chance to look at the things on display. This quilt had kaleidoscope stars. I know how to do kaleidoscope hexagones but stars?

I am intrigued. I might have to google to find out how to do these. Or does anybody know?











October 6th ! Another important anniversary: 1975 I arrived in the USA. 36 blissful years.