Felt Goodness

While in the hospital with Laura, I took a walk one day to a local Barnes and Noble and found Fa La La La Felt. I normally NEVER buy books brand new at these kinds of places, but a second look and I decided the book had to come home with me.

Fa La La La Felt is filled with 45 terrific ornaments and decorations for Christmas, all using felt or felted wool. I'm in love with just about every one of the designs (it's unusual to come by a book where you love almost everything). I've been thumbing through trying to decide which one to try first. I don't have a lot of crafting time this year, but we are planning one day devoted entirely to making ornaments. I think we'll all be picking something from this book.

First of December

The kids and I sat down last week to sketch out a rough idea of what our December should look like. All important events were noted, including decorating the house, making ornaments, making presents, making candy cane cookies, decorating sugar cookies, birthday celebrations, and the annual "Hogmanay" house cleaning. There's lots to look forward to.

We woke up December 1 to a white start for the month. It seemed the perfect thing for December 1st. Of course our snowfall looks extremely pitiful compared with the snowfall in the UK right now!

The advent calendars are all being opened each morning. Such a long tradition beginning with my grandmother. This year my mom helped the kids each make a new one to add to the collection. This one has always been my favorite:

Plaid is everywhere in the magazines and Christina and I are totally in the spirit. New tea cozies were a must. Michael is glad for something more masculine than the usual floral cozy. It pairs well with the plaid shirt I recently came upon for him.

Our table looked festive tonight, despite the house being a wreck from the decorations everywhere. I liked the red wool sweater draped over the brown chair. Red, green, silver and brown are the colors I'm aiming for this year.

I hope your Decembers are off to a good start!

Cath Kidston Love

I was totally surprised to find this waiting for us when we got back from the hospital with Laura (nearly two weeks ago!). Cath Kidston is one of my very favorite stores/catalogs. I've never actually been in one of her stores, but have always seen her stuff in my favorite magazines and love looking online or in the catalogs.

Those of you who know me well, or have read this blog long enough, will take one look at her catalog and know why I love it. :)

Now I actually own something from Cath Kidston! It's so exciting. :) And, note how the Twinings tea actually color coordinates with the contents of the box!! I finally had to give up looking at everything and start using it. Poor cousin John had to drink from the Cath cup when he was here on his last visit -- I think we'll have to find something more manly for the future.

Update on Laura

Laura weighed in at 12 pounds today!!! Great progress, but not great enough to keep the NG tube out. Next time Laura fails to drain a bottle I have to put it back in. :( Oh well. We tried anyway.

It looks like Laura may be teething tooth #5 and #6. She's also having some trouble with constipation and a few other annoyances, but nothing to worry about.

It's so nice not to watch Laura sweat during a feeding and also nice to see her tolerate a 45 minute therapy session! She's always conked out before then. It's sad to think that Laura is now weaned, but it was necessary for both her and for me.

Thanks for your continued prayers for Laura!

Our Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving season has kept our hearts filled with gratitude for God's gracious sustaining of Laura through her surgery and back home. We couldn't help but smile each time we saw Laura on Thanksgiving -- she was so happy and cute.

Thanksgiving prep started Tuesday with Christina over for some baking. On the spur of the moment, we decided to make pumpkin ice-cream for snack. It was so good!!!!

Friends invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. It was so nice not to have to worry about hosting in the midst of everything else.

I did make this tray of appetizers. It's modeled after something I saw in Southern Living. The rosemary roasted pecans were the highlight of the tray.

Happy Laura:
Doesn't this turkey look picture perfect?!

The meal was delicious and included roasted sweet potatoes with cranberries and apples; sauerkraut, watercress and green bean salad (!!), and homemade cranberry sauce.

Enjoying all the work.

Laura getting her Thanksgiving dinner bottle.

Dessert: pumpkin pie, apple pie, cranberry blueberry pie, pecan tarts and chocolate tarts.

The kids ended the evening in a dark room in front of the fire telling scary stories. :)

I've spent the weekend enjoying the fall decorations, realizing that Christmas is just around the corner. The kids and I made a calendar for December with the important things on it. Hopefully we'll be able to keep things fairly simple.

Rachel Turns 10

I was so glad that we were home in time to properly celebrate Rachel's 10th birthday!!! I grew up in a family where birthdays were "BIG". Not big in money sense, but big in the thoughtfulness, creativity of decorations, and effectiveness of making you feel special.

I went to Hobby Lobby on Saturday and came up with this little table theme, which I think Rachel enjoyed. (The above picture is not great, unfortunately.)

I also found a new skirt and hairband to make a nice little new outfit. It's always fun to have a new outfit for a special day. :)

Everything was pink and sparkly. Very girly.

James was with me when we picked out the decorations and I told him he could buy Rach a Christmas ornament for a birthday present. This is what he picked out:

Rachel wanted lemon cake so we added lemon zest to our regular 4-egg cake and then mixed lemon curd with whipped cream for the icing. Very good!

It's hard to believe that my active parenting years with Rachel are more than half over.

Before we know it Rachel will be a young lady.

The kids had lots of fun with the party (there were jellybeans sprinkled all over the table). Michael and I just tried to stay awake.

Yes, the cake was good.

Thanksgiving prep is under way! Pie crusts are in the fridge and waiting to be baked tomorrow!

Working Towards Normal

It is SO GOOD to be home!!! We've spent the weekend getting settled back in, catching up with the kids, and enjoying Laura's beaming smile.

She was so happy to see the kids again.

We are trying to head back to life that is somewhat normal. We still have a lot of doctor's appointments ahead of us, and another surgery for cysts in January. Beyond that there are still questions for the future, but we are thankful that the biggest known issue has been dealt with (the VSD).
We were especially happy to be home in time to prepare for and celebrate Rachel's 10th birthday, which was Sunday. It was a quiet afternoon, but a special one.

Laura just loves her Daddy, by the way:

Lemon Cake as requested by the birthday girl (more pictures to come).

Many bedtime moments are spent in this way: Laura visiting Rachel in her bedroom. It is precious to watch their relationship at the very beginning and dream about what it can become in the future.
And now for thoughts of Thanksgiving....I am so thankful I don't have to worry about much more than pies this year. Friends will be hosting us. Fall seems to have past in a blur and now it is almost Christmas.