Living the Dream, Farm Style: Thanksgiving Week!

I am so glad it's Thanksgiving week! I just love this time of year. To me, the start of Thanksgiving week is truly the start of the holiday season. We got out all of our Christmas decorations yesterday morning and had some wonderful family time together putting together the tree. Then I continued to work through Allie's naptime while John went to the stores and by 5 pm had everything complete. There is always more to add, just like we add each year, but at this point all of the decorations we have are out. John and I just love the house decorated for Christmas, we always say we wish it were like that year round, but of course by January we are ready to stash it all away until next Christmas. I snapped some quick pictures today, the only one I didn't get was Allie's room - she has a little tree as well as a pink Santa. Today is a cold and dreary rainy day. I spent the morning baking. I made mini loaves of banana bread - new recipe, not sure I like it; fudge - also tweaked the recipe and don't like it; and granola - made it same as usual and it's fabulous. LOL. At least one out of the 3 turned out perfectly. Our DirecTV has a music station through XM called "Holly" and it plays wonderful Christmas music! We had it playing some yesterday while decorating, and I had it playing all morning while baking and doing laundry. Have I mentioned I LOVE CHRISTMAS??? Let's see, what else is going on around here. I think of all these things and then I sit down and my mind goes blank! Last Thursday was the follow-up Speech meeting. I took Allie to Library Storytime that morning and then after a couple quick errands met Cathy for lunch at the Club. John got done with work, so we didn't need her to watch Allie after all for the meeting. John had to go back to town for some farm stuff so he just went and signed the paperwork saying it's OK for Asher to start therapy. Lots of legality in this! John was on call the weekend, Fri/Sat/Sun, and did end up working most of Friday night but otherwise not too bad. He had a case Saturday morning and then didn't get called back at all I don't think until last night around 10 pm. He stayed the night and just called a little bit ago (it's about 2 pm) and was going to take care of the Maves' animals (they're out of town this week) and then be home. Saturday night the Maves came over with Catie who is on Thanksgiving break from her private high school. It was so good to see her! We hadn't seen her since she left for school back in August. We had a nice dinner and played some Wii Bowling, Tennis and also Mario Kart. I also experimented with my own version of the drink I had at Applebee's last Girls' Night Out and Cathy helped sample my concoction, lol. Pineapple and Orange juices and then Dark Rum and Raspberry Vodka. Tomorrow I am hosting Playgroup here, and we are having a Potluck in honor of Thanksgiving. I am baking a ham, and we'll have an awesome assortment of side dishes and desserts. Looking forward to seeing my buddies and I know Allie will have a blast, she loves having her friends over! Asher has school today and tomorrow but then is off Wed, Thur and Fri. John is off Thur but does have to work a little on Friday. But then he starts his vacation and doesn't go back until December 8th! Woohoo! He really needs the break! We plan to celebrate Thanksgiving with a traditional meal, just the 4 of us. I know I will be homesick, but will console myself with knowing my big trip home is in less than 5 weeks! Alright, can't think of a thing else so here are the pics from around the house. I had to use the flash as it is so dreary outside, but you can get the main idea. LOL Asher's shelf in his room:

Our reading corner in the front entry:

Me and John's tree in our bedroom:

Adorable snowman and love this bark tree!

Overview of the living room:

Little red & white woodsy tree in corner of front entry:

There's my first Dickens' Village house, the Whittlesbourne Church, on top of the fireplace!

Side view taken from dining room, we finally got the two stuffed birds hung from John's South Dakota hunting trip last year - a grouse and a prairie chicken.