Thanksgiving, With a Lovely Tradition Revisited...

Last year my oldest daughter began "The Thankful Leaf" Tradition. As silly as some of us thought it was at the time, it's a tradition that's lasted for a second year, and I dare say, will last for many a year to come, (tho some of it really isn't pretty - chalk it up to youth)!

It seems that each year there is a theme beyond our thankfulness that most of us are aware of - this year that theme was that Bly, Hailey and Lauren promised to do all the dishes...(snicker!)

Before our most magnificent dessert, with photo, and the before our sideways rendition of "So Long Farewell", I give you our Thankful list:

~I am thankful for my family, friends & good health - and I am thankful that Bly, Lauren & Hailey are doing the dishes!

~I'm grateful that we are all here to celebrate my son's first Thanksgiving and that Bly, Lauren and Hailey and Genevieve [family friend] are doing the dishes.

~I am thankful for a stick, and for dinosaurs. (This next part was added by her uncle, who is also her bro's godfather, but which Ella TOTALLY agrees with:-): Also I am thankful for my baby brother and his godfather who is my very favorite! ~Ella

~I am thankful for my family, friends, getting drunk @ noon on a Tuesday and that Bly, Hailey and Lauren agreed to do the dishes.

~I'm thankful for friends and family & Bly doing the dishes.

~I am thankful for my family! ~Simone

~I'm thankful for Bly - Hailey - Lauren for doing the dishes after...and it just so happens that I happen to have three paires of rubber gloves in the car for them!

~I'm thankful for family and friends. And that Bly has said he will do the dishes.

~I'm thankful for this big discombobulated Thanksgiving celebration and all the friends and family that make it so. Oh, and Bly doing the dishes!

~Great food made by great cooks!

~Life can be beautiful when you know you are loved!

~I am thankful 4
The health of our family,
The love our family shares,
The Sisca dumpster [inside joke]
& Bly doing the dishes!

~I am thankful for
My healthy 3 girls
(4 including CC [our dog])

~I am thankful for the most (tied for most
with Ella) beautiful godson in the world and am
also thankful that Ella loves me the most. I am
also thankful for the night I was conceived,
because I really like being here with all of you!

~I'm thankful that Bly agreed to do the dishes
tonight...and wash my car!

~I'm thankful for the Murray/Blystone/Varco
families for taking me in today. And for Bly for
agreeing to do the dishes!

~I'm thankful for being with family and friends to
enjoy this day...and that Bly has said he'd do the dishes!

~I'm thankful for my friends, family and THIS FOOD!
And BLY! Thankx!

~I am very grateful that Hailey, Lauren and Bly agreed to
do the dishes and other clean-up! Love, Grandpa Murray

~God Bless Bly Lauren and Hailey for doing a full clean-up
after this amazing dinner with such a great family!

~~~~~

Bon Appetit's recipe for the best damn ButterFinger Frosted cake EVER!
(Daryl, we LOVE that cookbook!)

~~~~~

And last, a sideways (use your imagination!) So Long Farewell:

Sideways, (because I do not know how to edit it), of a lovely song.

Signs Signs Everywhere Are Signs!

And who actually reads them?

Makes me smile.

~~~

xoabb

Sunday Serenity

Coming together is a beginning;

Keeping together is progress;

Working together is success.

~ Henry Ford

Perhaps our political parties could...well...
Oh, never mind!

~~~

xoabb
(sigh)

Fun with Dora

One day last week, Dora and her entourage hiked through the dog park to pick up Connor-man from his school, which just happens to be on the other side of said park. Before we all walked back to her house, Dora insisted that she and Connor have a good old game of ~chase~. Needless to say this required an ginormous amount of barking on Dora's part - and a lot of laughing on our part. I do believe Connor had bit of fun as well!

And for the one of you who hasn't read this,
do go here. Bet you'll just laugh yourself silly!

~~~

xoabb
Laughter...the very best medicine!

Ghost

I am the ghost of times gone by
With reminders of what is true
I am the ghost of storms gone by
Always reaching out for you
I am the ghost of memories past
Can you remember what is true?

~~~

xoabb

Turkey Tree

Last post/photo of my turkeys for while, I promise! I love my little point and shoot camera for just about everything except sometimes at dusk - it just doesn't always capture the beauty or luminosity of the evening sky. It was much more beautiful than that photo shows. BUT, you can easily see the turkeys on standing on their nightly roosts.

It's the weekend - well, almost - have some fun!

~~~

xoabb

Sky Watch Friday

do join us!

Turkey Run

Every fall around this time, my turkeys return to their sleeping tree. And they sleep there, through any and every kind of weather until it's time to make baby turkeys in the spring. I cannot imagine a more uncomfortable place to get some shut-eye. Then again, I'm not a turkey, so what do I know.

I never get tired of watching them do their running take off and then flumber (that's a cross between fly and lumber) to their tree. Kind of like a big awkward jumbo jet. Don't know if it really shows, but that last turkey managed to crash into a tree limb right after take-off. He still managed to make it to the tree, thank goodness. I would have hated to have had to fish him out of the pond!

~~~

xoabb

just loving the seasonal changes!

It's Veterans Day

Go shake the hands of the men and women

Who have served or are serving our country and

Tell them THANK YOU from the bottom your heart!

And thank you, soldiers, from the bottom of MY heart.

Neighborhood Signs

My Kind of Candidates...

At least they're appropriate for the office they ran for...

And My Kind of Political Signs...
Passé...Crumpled
Only made better if they're in the garbage...
Election day is over, my friends!

And may the elected be very wise ones...(sigh)

xoabb
expect anything!

Sunday Serenity

Shhhhhhh....
I'm sleeping!

~~~

xoabb

Just One More...I Promise! Really, I do!

I promise this is the LAST sunset I'll ever post.
Well...at least until the next week...

~~

And now for some last of the leaves of autumn loveliness

Salt marsh and the last day of beautiful autumnal trees



Golf course bathed in evening light


Through the limbs
Beautiful (but not as much as last year - shh, don't let those leaves know!)


Nature's stained glass window


The changing seasons
There's such beauty to behold
Each and every time

~~~

xoabb
beauty!

Sky Watch Friday
do join us!

Autumn Light & Our Danny Boy

I just am blown away by the gorgeous skies we've had this fall in Connecticut. Can't remember the last time they were this consistently day-by-day beautiful. (I guess that's making up for the leaves not being quite up to last autumn's spectacular glory.)

Every morning I drive to school it's all I can do not to pull over once or twice or three times to take a picture of the wonderful morning light! Of course, I can't pull over because I'm already five minutes late to work...darn! Wish I was a morning person!

~~~

For the first time since we've lived here, no one was home for Trick -or- Treater's. New beginnings I suppose. But there was a good reason.

My hubs and son (George Sr. & George III - aka Bly) spent the weekend in Houston visiting with our Dan Doyle - a young man whose family is close to all of we Blystone's, and is one of Bly's dearest friends. Though most of you don't know his story, it's one that should be shouted from the rooftops because it is so very inspirational. Danny was on vacation in Cancun when he dove into the water, hit a rock and was damaged beyond what any 26 year old young man should be. Since July he has been fighting the good fight to get back to an independent life. TIRR in Houston, far from his Northeast home, but where he's constantly been surrounded by his people, has been his key. That, of course, along with Dan's incredible sense of being the ultimate people-person. Never ever has he met a person he doesn't know and like...and who doesn't like, no love, him back.

George the older and George the younger came back with many wonderful stories of good times they had, inspiring moments, tearful times, and memories that will never be forgotten. I picked up the two Georges from LGA and then, in honor of Danny, we traveled to Don Peppe's in Jamaica, Queens, NY to partake of a meal at his very favorite restaurant in the whole wide world. (One of his friends that had also flown in for the weekend had gone there to get Dan his beloved baked clams and fried peppers just before getting on the plane to fly down.) Must say his favorite baked clams really were the best the three of us have ever had. Dan, when you get back, Don Peppe's is where we're all going! Can't wait!

Amazing and sometimes horrible the curve balls life sends our way. I can't imagine having the where-with-all this young man and his family has had to confront this blow - and that they're turning it into the most on-going positive thing it could possibly be. I'm just so very thankful for every bit of support that has been continually sent their way. And that we're a part of their lives. Oh hell...

o danny boy o danny boy we love you so...

~~~

xoabb