A Little Catching Up

I can't believe it's been since October that I've written on my blog. For those of you who actually read my blog let me just say I'm truly sorry for my lapse in writing. I have no excuse really, other than the ordinary busy, busy, busy. But that excuse sounds lame. Everyone is busy in their lives, especially during the holidays. The extent of the holidays that have passed since last I wrote includes Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. So let's do a little catching up, shall we?

Michael dressed as a jester for this Halloween. He figured Grady, his three year old cousin, could handle a little scary this year. We followed our annual tradition and went trick-o-treating with my Aunt Danna, Uncle Bob, my cousin Kellee and her husband Tim, plus their two children Grady and Claire, my God-daughter. Did I mention I'm thrilled to be Claire's God-mother? Michael received the mother-load of candy, as he puts it. I was happy when the candy ran out! Michael plus sugar equals CrAzY!

Next in the catching up of things was Claire's baptism. Her grandmother, Tim's mom, made Claire's beautiful dress. 

She was such a good baby during church. For the most part she slept right through the service. However, when we went to the front of the church for the baptism she woke up and took it all in. She didn't make a peep, not even when the water was pouring over her little head. Claire was perfect.

Thanksgiving was spent with family in Fostoria. We spent the day at the Luther Center at the Lutheran Church. It's a large room that gives the kids plenty of space for running and playing. Aunt Danna set up a kid's table for Grady. Michael and Grady colored and put puzzles together for awhile. 

Aunt Danna and Uncle Bob decorated the day before Thanksgiving with festive table cloths and matching plates and napkins. Traditionally, Aunt Danna does all of the baking. She makes mince meat pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cookies, and sometimes apple pie. This year she passed some of the baking on to me. I was thrilled because you know I love my mixer, and I love baking. I made the pumpkin cookies and the chocolate chip cookies. I also made my French apple cake, but this time I added a brown sugar cinnamon crumble topping.

One of my favorite foods this year had to be the sweet pickles Aunt Danna brought. They have cauliflower, peppers, and little onions mixed in with the pickles. They're difficult to find. Believe me, since Thanksgiving I've searched every grocery store in our area. But I'll talk more about the pickles in a later blog. 

As always I'm truly thankful for my family and friends.

I hope this has caught everyone up, at least through Thanksgiving. I'll write about Christmas and our house and the pickles a little later. Thanks for sticking with me. I hope your holiday season has been one filled with blessings.