A Song of Thanksgiving

 November went by really fast. 

We got to hang out with Tirzah, Griffin and Gwen one Friday evening.  Some of them disappeared to the basement and we only heard from them when they needed the sewing maching re-threaded.... yeah.  They were busy sewing and dress designing. 😂

These two spent the evening playing switch games.

Awwww... they get along so well sometimes...

And Kenna got to hang out with us on Sunday evening.  :) 

We brought home our final 1/2 a hog from  Wyss Farms.  Sad day.  😥 (Also, I'm not sure why I got the neck bones, or what I'm supposed to do with them.) 

We had homemade apple cider, so I really needed to make apple cider donuts!  It was not my best day in the kitchen: first I burned the cider instead of reducing it, then the oil was too hot so half of the donuts were still gooey in the middle. Mur.  The rest of them were great, thankfully.

Perrin likes to mow the leaves. 

Dang came over for supper and the boys built a tall tower.

We took the two littles out to the woods one afternoon just to see what was going on.  :)  It was pretty quiet.

We could not figure out why Perrin was being so whiny- until we tried to leave and he got so mad and pointed at the skidder.  Put him in the seat and he was happy as a clam and didn't want to get down.  😂

Cecily raised a meal worm in science class and they got to bring it home.  Woot.  Just what I've always wanted!

The kids were all outside playing in the leaves, and putting them in Perrin's shirt and pants. *sigh*  So he was full of leaves and we stripped him down and shook his clothes out.  He was not sad.  Ha.

My youngest cousin got baptized so we spent the weekend in W-ton. (I keep saying last cousin... but we're still waiting on one.)  My mom was serving lunch and I really didn't help her at all, but we were there for once.  Cliff is friends with some of my former students so it was fun to see them.  Also, it made me laugh a lot- "greetings Mrs. Koch" just sounds weird.  😁

As I was trimming up and getting ready to put the binding on our quilt, the knots all started untying themselves.  Gah.  The thread we used was too slippery or something, so I got some new, non-slippery thread and we re-knotted the whole thing.  *sigh*  But then it was time to quilt the center block!  Hooray!  I remember Grandma Wyss showing me how to quilt long ago at World Relief sewing.  

We all did a little bit, even Bob.  (He would not let me take his picture)

 

Miriel's technique was interesting... haha.  She also made the tiniest stitches.  

 

One day my brain was gone and I thought I was making two pans of cookie bars for Bob to take to work, instead I had inadvertently doubled a chocolate chip cookie recipe.  That makes about 6 doz a batch.  I don't know how I had enough ingredients.  So I baked all through piano lessons instead of my quick pans of bars.  And we put a few dozen dough balls in the freezer for later.   😜

Busy little helpers.

More quilting. 

Add replacing a trike axel to the four new bike tires- it might have been cheaper to get new riding toys. 

He is not supposed to be on the road, but they were filling Emmy's bike basket with leaves or something. 

 

I went to the dress rehearsal for Messiah on Saturday morning, which is always really fun.  Then I came home and made everyone work.  

 

I was so close to getting my spring cleaning list mostly checked off (yes, I know it's not spring anymore) so we finally tackled the kitchen.  Some were more enthused than others.  Some just wanted to crawl into the bottom cabinets.  I'm not sure it's as clean as if I'd have done it all by myself, but it's cleaner than it was.  😜

 

Sunday was the performance and I was a little nervous.  I haven't been able to sing Messiah for the last five years, and it's been a very long time since I've even been up in front of a crowd.  I made it through with minimal mistakes though, and I think we sounded ok.  My favorite parts are when we finish the louder, most joyous choruses- everybody is at forte and you can feel this wave of sound projecting out into the audience.  Then we all cut off and there is a split second of silence before it bounces back to us.  So cool.   

 

Oh Buddy.

Bob and the girls all had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off.  We invited my grandma for lunch, which is a little bit more complicated than it used to be, but Erika was able to bring her over.  (...and I feel old because her aunt is my age.)  It was really good to have her at our house; we showed her our quilt progress (we brought it upstairs) but she didn't think she wanted to put any stitches in. 

We finished up the last little bit of quilting and took it off the frame!!  So exciting to have it all done! It's so big- queen size, and pieced front and back.  😲  I don't think the girls have any idea how big of a project this really was.  

Perrin just thinks it's snuggly. 

We got the fabric in January, sewed all spring and summer, knotted and quilted all fall, and 11 months later we all signed our names on the finished quilt label. 

Then Emmy and I made pies for Thanksgiving.  We baked the little bit of extra pumpkin filling in a tart pan and made the teeniest cutest pie slices for Miri and Perrin.  😍  They both just ate the whipped cream.  ha.  

I love Thanksgiving food.  Perrin ate a roll.  hehe.  Also a bunch of other food- he likes to eat. :)

These two are a pair. 

There were cars, so Perrin was happy.

Aunt Amy showed us pictures from her Safari trip to Africa (so cool!) and then we ate pie.  Perrin ate chocolate pie.

Friday we cleaned and I about froze to death mowing the rest of the leaves.  We went out to Bob's parents for supper since Matt is home.

And today we got to put the carol books in the church benches for the very first time.  I also am "picturing your girls 50 years from now reminiscing about the time they remember putting Christmas caroling books in the benches for the first time...because they're Wysses and they like history and they're Kochs so they won't forget!"  Miri was slightly confused about what was happening, so if she tells you she was decorating the church, this is what she means.  😂

Blessings.