Our Thanksgiving

For the last many, many, many years Jason and I have celebrated Thanksgiving with his family -- usually lots of Thanksgivings driving from house to house . . . This year we stayed at one house (yea!) and celebrated with my mother's side of the family. It was such a nice day -- great food and even better company. The kids played non-stop.

When we got home we had "movie night" and ate flavored popcorn. I'm thinking that it might be a new tradition.

Jason got into our boxes of books this weekend. We have a lot of books -- it was so much fun. I was very impressed at our collection and wished we had a bookshelf so that I could easily re-read some of them. Alas, I just pulled a few loved ones and now have enough to get me through a few more weeks. If you're trying to find a good read then you might want to consider some of these -- remember these are just a few and definitely not my only favorites.

1. The Screwtape Letters -- CS Lewis


2. The World According to God -- Greg Johnson


3. Lies Women Believe and the Truth that Sets Them Free -- Nancy Leigh DeMoss


4. Bringing Up Boys -- Dr. James Dobson


5. Discipline -- Elisabeth Elliot


6. Shadow of the Almighty -- Elisabeth Elliot


7. Passion and Purity -- Elisabeth Elliot


8. and the Bride Wore White -- Danah Gresh


9. The Mission of Motherhood -- Sally Clarkson
10. The Holiness of God -- RC Sproul

Oh, and Michael Ann -- I found your Captivating book. Such an awesome book and I'm glad that it wasn't lost forever. I'm going to read it again, too.

I just finished reading Tramp for the Lord by Corrie Ten Boom. I was telling my friend, Vicki (who has been so awesome to mentor me this last year) and she shared how they had a private tour through the house/shop while they were serving in Europe and showed me a pocket watch that they had purchased from the shop. Wow! Maybe someday I'll get to go there, too. I love Corrie Ten Boom like I love Elisabeth Elliot (Chloe's middle name is Elisabeth if that is any indication.)

Love you!

mickie

Quote of the Morning

About 7:00am this morning Luke was eating candy corn (ugh!) I was just about to get on to him when he said, "It's tasty in my mouth." Cute, so I left him alone. This afternoon we were at the mall where we were trying (unsuccessfully) to get Abigail some shoes. I shared some of Chloe's goldfish with Luke and he broke out in a full dance. He said, "Eating a goldfish makes me want to dance." Another cute one -- especially if you had seen how elaborate his dance was. He's enjoying some junk food today (his favorite.)

I'm putting a picture of Chloe up for Aunt Ashley. She sent Chloe this outfit for her birthday and I wanted to let her see how she looks in it. I know how to put a picture here but not how to do it in an e-mail. So, here she is -- so sweet! Thank you, Aunt Ashley.

mickie

Halloween

On Friday, Mikaela had a Halloween Party at her "school." The parents did it up well -- pizza and Krispy Cream doughnuts decorated like pumpkins. Then they did a parade where the parents would pass out candy and they got to trick-or-treat. She got so much candy that she was able to share with her brother and sister. Luke was even caught in the closet with her bag and she still had some left over! Mikaela was a cheerleader. She wore my cheerleading uniform from when I was in the 5th grade. Scary.

We have always done Halloween -- either at a church or more recently in our old neighborhood. This year we opted out and spent a quiet evening at home toasting pumpkin seeds and enjoying a nice dinner and dessert. My aunt had a Halloween party today and I am sure it was tons of fun. She promised it would be full of really scary stuff. She did introduce me to my first Haunted House as a child -- so I'm sure it was. Instead we went to the Kimball Art Museum to see the Impressionist paintings.

I've loved the Impressionists since I was in High School/College and was excited to see them in person. I was looking forward to introducing my children to them. This weekend was the last time the collection would be in Ft. Worth and we ended up joining all the other procrastinators (and there were a lot!) Parking was crazy but we ended up with a good spot. I heard someone say as we were walking in that the line for tickets was about 45 minutes -- looking at the line I believed them. As we were making our way to the line one of the employees told me to go to the members only line and tell them that he sent me. Wow, he must have felt sorry for the woman with four small children and a stroller. We went to the line and a lady questioned if we were members. I explained what "John" had told me and she looked at me and then passed me two (free) tickets and directed me where to go. Such generosity! I'm very impressed with the employees at the Kimball! We made our way through most of the collection but it was really too crazy to enjoy much. I think the kids, especially Abigail, got a good introduction and I got to see some of my favorites paintings up close. Nice day.

Love to you all,

mickie