The Fam on the Farm

This post will be pictures of family, so if you're not interested in all that, this is your clue to click away!! To begin:
Anna, Hannah & Katie. And Philip's fingers.

My mom and dad. Must've been breakfast.

Hannah and her dear mom, Anne. They're both still smiling, so this must have been an early pic. Ann is the one who organized all the holiday, hosted us in her home, and cooked pretty much everything. For about 30 people. I hope she's sitting with her feet up now!

My mother, with her littlest grandbaby, Liberty Margaret.

A very happy grandmother, with Courage and Abraham. I must say, both these little boys are absolutely adorable, and I wanted to squeeze them both to death, but I had to refrain, being only an aunt. Plus, I didn't want to scare them to death.

Anna holding Liberty Margaret.

We ate down at Max & Anne's church, and Adam helped in the kitchen. He made a turkey breast and the dinner rolls.

My dear sister-in-law, DeVona. She brought a couple of pecan pies, a huge yummy broccoli salad, and a wild rice dish. And she still has a smile on her face too!

Adam, with a daughter and two nieces -- Hannah and Patience. I think he still doesn't realize that he's not a teenager anymore!

My brother Marshall and our daddy, waiting on the meal:

Patience, Katie & Anna. All these beauties are olive complexioned. Each of my siblings (and myself) seemed to have at least one olive-toned child, and at least one very-fair, blondy kid. It's so fun to watch all the cousins together, and compare and watch them. They are all -- each and every one -- great kids.

Anne -- she's still smiling!!

Liberty Margaret with her big sister, Mercy. That's William back there, and I promise, he's not usually that grumpy. I think he must be hungry at this point :)

I think this is the only picture I got of my brother Mark, so I'd better put it in here! He was nearly the first one to leave and head home.

There'll be another installment of people pictures, but this will do for now.

Thanksgiving on the Farm

Allow me to share a few pictures of Max's blueberry farm. About 30 of us spent Thanksgiving together here.
Here's the square farm house:

Here's the big red barn:

Here's the cool, antique farm equipment, rusting gracefully:

And here's the thousands of blueberry bushes, lovingly cared for by the farmer:

Stormy Weather and More Gingerbread

On our way to the Grove Park Inn yesterday, the skies were ominous. Julia kept exclaiming about the cloud formations, and when I looked up, I understood why:

They're rather shocking. The girls compared it to being under a quilt. The wavy shapes are so interesting.

From my distant memories of snorkeling, it seems to resemble being underwater. They almost look like the underside of mountains, if you know what I mean.

Thankfully, it didn't rain on us at the Grove Park. Our friend is on crutches because she damaged her heel.

This gingerbread entry was in the "teen" category. I'm guessing that is 13+, perhaps up to 19 years old?

This entry won the teen category. It's the house from the movie "Despicable Me," the girls said.

Here's one from the adult category.

They had pretty Christmas trees up too, although the massive one in the lobby won't go up until after Thanksgiving.

I had to get a picture of this one for Julia -- this is Redwall Abbey, the setting for her all-time favorite book series.

And one last treasure from the adult category. This entry was in the Top Ten finishers. Why it didn't get in the top three, I don't know, except that the competition was clearly very tight!

Happy Thanksgiving! If you don't hear from me, it's because we're celebrating a chaotic, fun Thanksgiving with about thirty of us, and I'm sure I'll be busy. Blessings to all!

Grove Park Inn's Gingerbread House Competition

Today I drove to Asheville with the girls and a friend, to see the Annual Gingerbread House Competition at the Grove Park Inn. The Grove Park is a gorgeous, high-end resort and spa, with many fine restaurants and boutiques. The original structure is old and very beautiful.

I just love the roof line. And while we were walking through the halls in the old section of the building, I noticed something important. That building smells just like Carter Hall, the original structure at Covenant College. I noticed the smell as soon as I walked into the old section, and then it was gone as soon as we moved into the newer wings.

Those of you who are Covenant people, will know immediately the smell to which I refer. It's not a bad smell, it's just a kind of old smell. I thought it was unique to Carter Hall, but no! It's unique to buildings of that era, and perhaps to hotels? Carter Hall used to be "The Castle in the Clouds."

The girls posed in the sleigh in the main lobby.

I took many pictures of gingerbread houses, and I'm sure I'll share them with you over the next few days. But here's the entry that won the adult category. I believe it's the "shoe" from the nursery rhyme of the old lady who had so many children she didn't know what to do. It was excellent.

This was our very favorite. It was among the Top Ten in the adult category. Doesn't that toy box look real? And the dolls? It's all edible, and mostly gingerbread or icing or candy. Truly amazing.

I believe this won the second place. The large ornaments are stunning. They look like glass.

And this is the third place entry. The horse was so finely done here.  Again -- every piece of it is edible.

More gingerbread to come!

What DID happen today?

The morning was relatively normal, except that my mom's washing machine died yesterday. With a load of Peter's clothes in it, and a tub of water. I hung them dripping on the line.

And my two college kids arrived home today. With laundry.

And we're leaving on a trip on Wednesday, and need to do laundry.

Thankfully, we had our washer in the basement. Adam swapped washers, and laundry commenced again.

Meanwhile, I went to town and had lunch with a friend.

But Philip's car broke down, over and over, on his drive to pick up Anna.

So I changed plans and drove down to pick up Anna and bring her home.

Philip finally limped in rather late.

We are all falling into bed. Phew!

Scarf #3

Here it is! I finished it this evening. My only complaint is that (again) the color from my camera isn't quite right. I may take another photo tomorrow, outside in good sunlight.

The red is a rich, deep blood red with no orange in it. And the green is more greeny and not blue.

Love the brown sparkly yarn on the flower. It makes it really stand out.

What I like about these scarves is that they're not forever-long, and draping down your back. They stay in place, and they function almost like a snugly collar. If you had a winter sweater that left your neck bare, this wrap would keep you neck warm and look pretty.

Great Christmas colors! It's for sale!

Yarn Heaven

Sometime in September, a friend sent me her yarn because she was cleaning out. Yippee!! This friend, Madeline, is a classy girl. She does interior design work, and she has something that some of us don't have. Some of us have better luck closing our eyes before we reach into the closet for our Sunday attire, rather than trying to match color, style or texture. Madeline has style. I'm usually afraid to go beyond black, gray, dark blue or (maybe) green. Patterns and frills in clothing are dangerous territory. But when Madeline buys yarn, she buys fun stuff, as you'll see.

I'm starting another scarf, this time red. This is a bumpy, deep red yarn. I like to put my yarn in a ziplock bag, and just let the end string out of a corner. It keeps your yarn from running away from you under the couch.

This is a gorgeous skein, sparkly and just a little nubby.

I love the deep velour feel of the yarn on the right. It would make a nice scarf too. I want to match it with the one on the left. Its color isn't really coming out properly in this photo; it's not that orange, and it matches the other yarn beautifully. I want to try the flower in that one.

Madeline gave me quite a bit of "eyelash yarn." Isn't this delicious?

See why it's called eyelash yarn?

Here's another scarf combo I want to try.

More eyelash

These are some cool yarns! A little wild for my taste, but they do look sunny in this gloomy November weather.

Here are two more red choices. The left one has a felt feel, and the right one is fuzzy and soft.

Fuzzy:

This is probably the craziest yarn she gave me. What to make with it? I don't know, unless I decide to knit an owl!! Hey, I wonder if I could ....

Here are just a few more. Gold, bulky felt, sparkly red, electric blue --

I really, really love this felted yarn. There are four balls of it.

And all this is probably only half of what she sent me -- amazing! I have yarn for years, I think.

Madeline, if you're reading this, many, many thank-you's for all this wonderful creativity! I'm enjoying it so much.