I love November!

 November has been a pretty busy month socially. The weekend of the 11^th, we attended the Friday and Saturday activities at Highway. It was so good to see everyone and hear the good lessons and enjoy the wonderful singing. I had forgotten how good the acoustics are there. Of course, having a full building really helps, too! We really appreciated Jamie and Renee opening up their place for everyone to come out and enjoy the fellowship (and food!).

On the 16^th, Diane and I met for lunch in FW and then went to the movie theatre to watch “To Kill a Mockingbird”. I love that movie, and it was even better on the big screen! I was surprised to see a pretty full theatre…especially since we attended the 1:00 matinee. It wasn’t just us old folks either. There were quite a few young adults present. I’m glad to see the younger generation appreciate such a wonderful classic movie. As always, I really enjoyed my time with Diane. Looking forward to watching “White Christmas” with her next month!

I’ve been struggling with carpal tunnel problems for a few years now. It has gotten increasingly worse in the last year or so. So I went to my orthopedic surgeon on the 22^nd to see what needed to be done. He is going to do surgery to “release it” on the 7^th of December. The recovery time is supposed to be quite short…about 2 weeks. He said it may take a little longer than that until I’m comfortable clipping my rag quilts, but I shouldn’t have any trouble sewing. I’m looking forward to getting that taken care of! Right now my hand goes numb whenever I knit or crochet or do any handwork. I have to do those things in short spurts with recovery time in between.

This week has been wonderful! *Sigh* It began last weekend with Ricky, Amber and Archer spending a couple of nights with us on their way to NM. We spent the day Saturday shopping, visiting with Linda and Charles, and then finished up by driving through “Radiance!”, the light display at the Parker County Sheriff Posse grounds. We were afraid that Archer would sleep through it, but he was mesmerized! He is so much fun, and we love every minute we get to spend with him! They went to church with us at Eastside and then headed west after lunch. Archer was quite the hit with our bunch!

Our anniversary actually fell on the weekend that Ricky's family were here. 45 years together! We are going to have a little delayed celebration next Saturday. My kiddos gave me an early Christmas present of season tickets to the Bass Hall Broadway Series. The first performance will be "My Fair Lady" on 12/3. I am SO excited!!! It has been AGES since I got dressed up and went to something like that. 

We had a small Thanksgiving gathering this year. All of my kiddos were celebrating with their in-laws, so we invited friends and family that might not have other plans to come. Most had other plans or didn’t feel up to getting out, so there were just four of us, but we had a great visit and tons of food! I loved being able to finally cook a REAL Thanksgiving dinner again.

After our guests left, I baked and decorated Nam’s birthday cake. His birthday is today, so his family came over to celebrate. I fixed his favorite soup (Zuppa Tuscana) and Sheila brought some delicious homemade bread to go with it. Nam had requested a cake that looked like a volcano, so it wasn’t too complicated. He loved it! And I was FINALLY able to give him his rag quilt that I made him months ago. He was quite pleased with it. We really enjoyed the day with him and Sheila and Matt! We are now looking forward to having a sleepover again when he’s off on Christmas break next month.

Enjoying his gifts

9th Birthday Volcano Cake

Big Cat Rag Quilt

We haven't done much on the house this month. We got in the base for our shower this past week, so Dennis will start working on it probably next week. We still need to go pick out the tile that we want. We will probably go next week to get that. In the meantime, Dennis has done a little hunting, bringing in 2 deer so far. We sent some meat home with Sheila and Matt to free up space in our freezer, so he plans to go out again this next week. I cooked up one batch of jerky before Ricky and Amber's visit, but I still have 2-3 more batches to do from last year's meat supply. It took so long for the weather to cool off enough to run the oven for hours! We ought to have some good days over the next couple of weeks to make up the rest.

I hope that you all have enjoyed this special week with family and friends and took time to be thankful for the many blessings that we enjoy!

Ps 100:3-5 Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations. (NKJV)