We were able to get our Thanksgiving things down this past weekend. Rob took our daughter and grandson out and they cut a tree and Malcolm and I decorated it. His auntie says he’s a maximalist when it comes to tree decorating. I agree!

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a nice crowd of family and friends here to celebrate. My niece, Alissa, is so good with the little ones and the boys really enjoyed her company, too.

Our lives have been extremely busy, which is why I haven’t been blogging, but I had time today to pop on here and leave an update. We have been working many, many hours each week. That is probably the single thing that keeps us the busiest. We still work with special needs kids and Rob and I can do it together much of the time, since there are 2 clients that we switch and swap working with or do both at the same time, depending on the need.

We are very active with the children’s ministry at church, including the 5th grade Sunday School class we teach. I’m still in the choir and love it. We are still cooking each week for the Young Adult group, especially the gluten-free/dairy-free food.

I was able to grow my usual enormous garden and canned and preserved hundreds of items. I cut back, as I had quite a bit of carry-over, but it’s always still quite a project. We went down to the docks and purchased tuna from a boat and canned up a lot of that this year, since we skipped last year.

Recently, Rob and I slipped away for a weekend at the beach. It was a King Tide and we had a fun time watching the water crash into the rocks up and down the coast. In Depoe Bay, the water was coming up so fiercely, that it was spraying over the railings onto the cars driving along the road…pretty impressive. The picture above was taken along the way as we drove south. I can’t remember where exactly but likely near Yachats.

I hope you all have a blessed week as you prepare for the upcoming Christmas holiday! I know we still have cookies to bake, a Sunday School Christmas party to give, tons of cooking for the Young Adults, and family events….lots of fun things. And, Malcolm has informed me that Baby Jesus wants a chainsaw for Christmas…..Not sure what to think about that, but some Christmas shopping needs to be done for lots of other people, in any case. It’s a busy, happy time around this household and I hope it’s the same for you.