gobbles and jingles all the way....

Blogfaces,

I don't know about you, but I am so very excited about going home for Thanksgiving this year.  Tim and I haven't been home to Newburgh in a really long time.  We just let ourselves get so busy - going here and there and doing this and that, and those four pronouns can really take it out of you.

Anyway, we get to spend Thanksgiving with our three loving families and eat lots and lots of delicious food.  One item on the menu can be featured to the right.

This is Tim Street, with his friend, G. Obble.  (Tim is the one on the left).  This picture was taken last week when he helped our friends at Schacht Farm harvest their turkeys.  Look how big and tasty he looks (the bird, that is)!  We are taking some turkeys home to our families and saving one in our deep freeze, you know, for a rainy day.

I am also excited about eating mashed potatoes and gravy with my grandma's corn (that is drowning in butter) and Tim's mom's cranberry-orange relish (which only Maggie and I can truly appreciate), and whatever new dish my dad cooks up this year (last year's green bean casserole was really good).

One of the best things about Thanksgiving, is that it is the kick-off to the Holiday Season!  The month or so between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the BEST.  This will be our second Christmas since being married, and we are very excited about creating traditions for our family and our community in Bloomington.  We want to remember God's gift to us through Jesus Christ, and taking time to ask ourselves how we are embodying the love of Christ in our Christmas activities.

In thinking about Christmas, I stumbled upon this group called Advent Conspiracy.  Check out their website, it looks pretty interesting.  I haven't visited all the pages, but basically, it seems like there are many people out there who have said to themselves, "Wait, what has Christmas become?  I feel more and more stressed and tired and broke every year!"

Their suggestions for a more fulfilling holiday season are:

 
Worship Fully
Spend Less
Give More
Love All

Sounds simple enough, but practically incorporating these ideals into our family's deeply entrenched Christmas traditions will take some creativity and real effort.


Part of my goal to "spend less" this year is to wrap my gifts both beautifully and as sustainably as I can.  One of my very favorite parts of Christmas is getting all my crafty supplies out and turning my gifts into works of art!  Tim says I spend way to much time creating gift wrap that will only be admired temporarily, but I love doing it anyway.  Last year I tried to use only recycled materials, and I want to do that again, but with more creativity and spice!  I surfed the web and found this website that had some good tips.

Top 10 Green Gift Wrap Ideas

Anyway, I may write more about this later, but in the mean time, please share your thoughts, comments, ideas, or resources with me.

In conclusion, I will share a joke I just made up:

What kind of key does Dr. Turk use to get into Sacred Heart Hospital on Thanksgiving?

A TURK KEY!

I am so clever.

Have a very Thankful Thanksgiving!

lovecare.