Beginning the Holiday Season.

I am way behind on blogging so I will go all the way back to last week!

Last Tuesday I volunteered to help out in Ella's classroom during their fall celebration. The theme was "coneucopia" as well as having several different craft stations where each one had to do with one of the five senses. The class did their usual circle time then each child moved through each craft station at their own pace. I was assigned to a station and I worried that I would be a distraction for Ella and she would want to stay at my station. I was SO proud of her in the classroom. She sat through circle perfectly and sang each word to each song and contributed to a Thanksgiving word, "jello", LOL. She moved through each station independently and didn't make a fuss about me being there. She is growing up! For one of the crafts each child said what they were thankful for which was then written on a leaf and hung on a tree. Ella said she was "thankful for baby Claire". So stinkin sweet. At the end, each child made a snack of a waffle cone that you could stuff with things such as mini marshmallows, teddy grahams, pretzels, dried fruit, etc. Hence, coneucopia. And of course before we left the school, Ella had to do some of her poses.

Thanksgiving Day turned out really nice this year. The four of us relaxed in the morning and watched the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Ella and I made a pumpkin dessert and I made a turkey. Tom's mom, her boyfriend Steve, his daughter Amber, my mom and Paul came over later in the afternoon. We had a ton of food! Shrimp cocktail, veggie pizza, cheese, salami, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn, green beans, 2 desserts, and homemade ice cream. Tony Steinke, Paul's son and owner of Alpha Cafe, whipped us up a batch of the Alpha's famous Tom and Jerry's to end the night with. It was a really nice and relaxing Thanksgiving.