The Best Day of the Year

It's almost time for the best day of the year. I'm talking about Thanksgiving. I love it with all my heart. I love the food. I love the togetherness. I love the purpose. And I love how there are absolutely no presents involved.

Growing up, we would load up the mini van (or later, hop on a plane), and head west to Chicago. There we would stay at my Grandparents house, and my aunts, uncles, and cousins who lived there would come over. And like the Whos down in Whoville, we would feast, feast, feast, feast! The men would take over the den and TV, the women would be in the living room, usually stitching, and the kids would be camped out in my grandparent's bedroom, watching Charlie Brown, White Christmas, and any other movie we could find in their Beta Disc collection. It was the best day ever.

While I am sure it was stressful to have all those people over, I never felt it from my Grandparents. In fact, they seemed in their element. They loved all the family and noise.

Every year around this time I love to sit and reminisce. Those memories of Thanksgivings past certainly have a honey glow to them. I hope my kids have the same feeling about the holidays I am trying to create for them. Although, I have married into a family that approaches Thanksgiving quite differently than I do. For example, their stuffing is made from rice. Rice! And they don't like sweet potatoes. Not even my mom's sweet potato casserole with the brown sugar crumble topping.

I know!

But that's okay. If there is one thing my grandparents showed me, Thanksgiving is about who you spend it with, and being grateful for the people who are missing from around the table. I know I am profoundly grateful for my Zundel grandparents. They are my heroes. This year, I will raise a turkey leg and a prayer of thanksgiving to them.

I Have a Stupid Problem

Remember in school how the only thing worse than not having the right thing was getting the right thing and promptly being accused of copying? Apparently it is something that has stuck with me. And it's stupid. Really stupid. It has kept me from doing something I really really want to do. And that, for an adult woman, is stupid.

I'm talking about The Farmer's Wife quilt.

I bought the book several years ago. I was in the process of choosing fabrics when all of a sudden the internets exploded with all these different quilters making this pretty pretty quilt. And then I got stupid and didn't want to do it because they would think I "copied" them.

So my first quilt of 2014 will be my version of the Farmer's Wife quilt. I am pretty excited about it. I am fairly certain I am going to make it lap sized, so I will be omitting some of the 111 blocks. I have an unhealthy obsession with sampler quilts. I love everything about them. So I may even make two versions. We'll see. Lately I can't even finish a chair cushion. I'm anticipating my baby will magically sleep through the night in 2014. Ha.

So here is my vow to not be stupid anymore. I am in control of my own life and quilting destiny. And if I want to make the same thing everyone else is making, or wear a shirt that someone I know has, or even cut my hair like someone else, I will. So there.

Some Thoughts

I have had a lot of thoughts swirling in my head lately. I blame it on my brain. Here's a glimpse of what's been going on inside there for the past month:

I hate blogging only once a month. I feel really bad about it. But I really don't have much going on right now that is exciting. Or maybe it is. Who knows? Do you find waking up at 3:30 AM to find that your dog has not only pooped all over the upstairs but is also rolling in it exciting? You do? Oh. Me too. So that happened. The end of the story is we cleaned it up and it was gross.

I participated in my big craft show of the year last weekend. My mom and I had a blast, and my besties even came for most of the day. I put them to work. We sewed bindings on pencil rolls and had a grand time. Something funny that happened there -- an aisle or two away from us was a table of hand turned pens and seam rippers. Curly heard them joking that they needed to sell "those women sewing" some seam rippers. As. If.

My baby now crawls with her belly off the floor and her little tongue poking out of her mouth. It is so cute you might die of you saw it.

I signed up for another small craft show at an elementary school for the week after Thanksgiving. Curly rolled his eyes. I think he is tired of craft show prep and wants more laundry prep. Me too. But I also like a crisp $20 bill in my pocket.

On a related note, I once heard my cousin say about his wife that she would kill you for 5 bucks. Me? I say make it 10 and you've got a deal.

Almost all of my Christmas shopping is done. I was feeling really good about it until I realized that none of the birthday shopping for the two the week before Christmas has been started. Whoops.

Curly has to work 6 days this week to get ready for Thanksgiving. I heart retail. Anyway, to make him happy to be home I made homemade cinnamon rolls and organized about 3/4 of his desk at home. Still no laundry.

I started the laundry this morning.

And lastly, this year I am so excited to celebrate the crap out of Christmas. I am feeling so freakin' jolly. As soon as the Christmas stuff went up in Target, I took my two little girls to marvel. My baby was just as excited as me! But Ginger? She went on a loud angry rant about how it's not even Thanksgiving and where were the Thanksgiving decorations? She got mad at the trees and the lights. This was all in front of the lovely Target employees. It was hilarious, coming from a 3 year old. Then she got over it and started talking about what Santa was going to bring her. We're all jolly!