2011's books

Most people know that I'm in a book club (I have been for over 2 years now), and as a result, I'm constantly getting asked for book recommendations. I decided to compile a list of books I've read (some with my book club, some without) over the past year. Here goes...

Treasuring God in Our Traditions,  Noel Piper

The New Dare to Discipline,  Dr. Dobson

*Gone With the Wind,  Margaret Mitchell

*The Story of the Trapp Family Singers,  Maria von Trapp

Stay Home, Stay Happy,  Rachel Campos-Duffy

Excuse Me, But I Was Next...,  Peggy Post

*Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul,  John Eldredge

*Bringing Up Girls,  Dr. Dobson

Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child,  Marc Weissbluth

*Room,  Emma Donoghue

Babywise 2,  Gary Ezzo

Summer and the City,  Candace Bushnell

What Southern Women Know,  Ronda Rich

*Pride and Prejudice,  Jane Austen

*Drowning Ruth,  Christina Schwarz

*Twilight,  Stephanie Meyer

*New Moon,  Stephanie Meyer

A Place of Yes,  Bethenny Frankel

Waiting for Daisy,  Peggy Orenstein

*Eclipse,  Stephanie Meyer

*Breaking Dawn,  Stephanie Meyer

*Freakonomics,  Steven Levitt

Bringing Up Boys,  Dr. Dobson

SuperFreakonomics,  Steven Levitt

*Before I Go to Sleep,  S.J. Watson

*The Hole in Our Gospel,  Richard Stearns

*A Christmas Carol,  Charles Dickens

On Becoming Pre-Toddlerwise,  Gary Ezzo

Habits of a Child's Heart:,  Valerie Hess

Looking back over that list, I'm surprised and delighted! 29 books?! Man, I love to read! It's definitely my #1 hobby (as evidenced by the amount of time AND money I spend on it).

The books that stand out as being my top favorites from the year are "Treasuring God in Our Traditions," "The New Dare to Discipline," "Gone With the Wind," "Pride and Prejudice," "Waiting for Daisy," "Superfreakonomics," and "Before I Go to Sleep." I don't want to go into a review of each book on here because it would make the post much too long, but if you have any questions about any of the specific books listed above, feel free to ask and I'll tell you what I thought!

*=books I've read with my book club

The Spofford Christmas Season, 2011

Here is a selection of photos from our 2011 Christmas Season.

First up: pictures from our annual delivery of cookies to everyone on our street.

All the packages of cookies and stack of cards ready to deliver.

3/4s of the Delivery Team. ;-)

2nd: Our broken tree. And it's only 5 years old!

3rd: We went to see The Trains at Northpark. (We forgot the camera so all the photos are from my phone. Sorry for the poor quality!)

 4th: We got THE strangest card in the mail. From Atlanta to Chattanooga and ended up in Dallas. ???

5th: Christmas Eve. Presents Time as a family. This is after service and dinner with Nonnie and Gramps. His main gift is the wagon you see in some of the shots. It wasn't wrapped, so there aren't any pictures of him opening it.

He wasn't feeling very well, so this smile is a bit deceiving of his mood.

little drummer man

I can't remember, now, where Seth and I read this book for the first time, but we HAD to get it for him when we saw it for sale at Costco.

pop-up Noah's ark book

We read this story together right after opening gifts.

 6th: Christmas morning we go to Nonnie and Gramps'. Even Georgia comes with us!

I'm glad I got a smiling picture of him, but he was pretty much a disaster the rest of the day. Georgia is visible on the left side of this picture.

"Board books! My favorite! Thanks Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Spencer."

I think I was more in awe of that outfit than Seth was. And certainly more than Austin was. And I love that Nonnie and Gramps got him "L is for Lonestar." I'd already bought him "B is for Badger."

Little People, Noah's Ark

You know what they say about kids having more fun with the box the toy comes in? Well, does that count for the father and uncle of the gift receiver? ;-) Poor Austin...

Best picture of the whole day!

A Cherry Christmas

One block north of our house, you can find an amazing Christmas Light Show. It's free, all the lights are choreographed to music, and there are enough songs to last about 20 minutes. Come out, it's worth the drive, wherever you're coming from! And it starts once it's dark, so no need to keep the kids out past bedtime!!

Pet Supplies "Plus" WHAT!?

I THINK I finally got this video so that y'all can enjoy it. 

Go HERE.

The Elf, The Pickle, a Guess, and a ...

The first time I saw The Elf on the Shelf, I wanted it. Immediately. I mean, I REALLY wanted it. He's so cute. He's got such a great smile. I just want to cuddle him. And stare at him. I thought he'd make a great addition to our decor. And then I read the back of the box. The part where it tells you the whole point behind the elf sitting on a shelf. And I died a small death. Right there in the store. I obviously couldn't get it, now that I knew what he was all about. And yet my heart kept screaming "But he's so cute! I want him!" (I must have regressed to at least 2nd grade.)

Do you know about The Elf on the Shelf? The whole premise behind him is that he sits somewhere in your home during the day and then goes back to the North Pole to report back to Santa how you (or your children, really) behaved that day. The elf shows up somewhere else the next day (because you moved him after the kids went to bed) and this is 'proof' he left and came back. For some reason, he doesn't come back and sit in the same place again. He doesn't like sitting in the same place twice, I guess. And the kids get to go around looking for him each day. Doesn't that sound like fun? It does. But we don't celebrate Santa in the Spofford household. We celebrate Christ's Mass (aka Christmas). So, no Elves on Shelves in this house. (But he is super cute! For a fun read as well as some fun pictures of The Elf, see my friend Rosa's blog.)

Do you play The Elf on the Shelf in your home? Can you come up with a way we could play it without tying it to Santa?

And then there's Hide the Pickle. I love this idea. Seth and I have been doing it for years. There are many variations on the game (if you Google it, you will see what I mean), but this is what we have been doing: we hang the pickle on the tree at the beginning of the month and then take turns hiding and finding it up until Christmas. In doing some 'research' for this post, I found many, many different ways of changing up the game. When we have kids old enough to find it, we will probably incorporate it into our Christmas festivities differently than we do now. Maybe on Christmas morning.

Our Christmas morning is currently pretty light on activity because we've already opened presents the night before (we don't do Santa, remember). We get up, eat breakfast, and head to Seth's parents' house. This could be something we add to the list, giving a bit of cash to the person who finds it. Or that person gets to eat first. Or doesn't have to clean up dishes. Or something. (Having typed that, it seems fairly likely we'd have to give everyone something or the losing kids would have a bad start to Christmas day. Hmm... Plenty of time to figure that out.) Anyways, that could be something we do. Or, we could continue to hide/find each day like we do now. Or, we could do it during the Christmas Eve dinner, and have it be the winner that gets to start opening gifts first. 

Do you play Hide the Pickle? If so, how do you play your version of the game?

As I previously posted, we have an Advent Calendar that we began using this year. I LOVE it. It's another fun "game" you can play during this time of year and it actually centers on what this holiday is all about: God and His story. During dinner, we read the appointed scripture portion for the day, and then guess what the ornament might look like. The ornaments are all different representations of what was just read aloud and sometimes it's easy to guess what it'll be, but not always. It's a fun, quick way to make decorating that tree an activity (rather than simply pulling out the new one each day and hanging it) and helps to spur conversation about the scripture passage. Adding the guessing component has made it exciting too. There's something about the element of surprise, it makes it almost game-like. But a game that has real meaning. I imagine changing this too as our family changes over the years, perhaps giving each person one guess/night or maybe making it a competition somehow.

Do you use an Advent Calendar (one involving scripture/God/Jesus)? How does it work in your family?

I'm interested in what other families do around this time of year. My friend Beth recently posted this idea on her blog. I LOVE it. I think that when we have kids that can understand the concept of searching the house for hidden, wrapped books, I'll probably start doing this too! It seems like a fun, healthy, inexpensive activity. All it will cost is some time and some wrapping paper! She also posted this idea, and I loved it as well. We do currently do a Christmas Countdown Calendar, but the representation of it is much more boring/ugly than a fun paper chain like she did. It would also serve as some fun decoration for the mantle (until the chain is all used up, anyways). I think I'll do both of her ideas next year.

Do you have holiday season traditions/games that you're comfortable sharing with me? I'd love to add more to our list!

Christmas Letter 2011

Merry Christmas!                                                                                        December 2011

As you might remember from last year’s Christmas Letter, we were wondering if it were possible for us to have an entire year go by without some major life change. Well, God seems to have allowed 2011 to be it! After several years of changes—graduation, promotions, buying houses, unemployment, relocating to Texas, new jobs, buying a dog, having a baby--we are happy to say that 2011 was fairly boring and for that we are extremely grateful!

The only negative about the past year is all the illness and injury this house has seen! Sena has had two root canals, a crown, 5 fillings fixed, a sprained ankle, an unexplained rash, and three bouts of a nasty stomach bug. And those are just the most note-worthy things! Seth shared one of the stomach bugs, but was otherwise perfectly healthy and uninjured. Austin, however, has had nearly every single virus possible—Croup, Hand, Foot, & Mouth, Herpangina, possible Chicken Pox, as well as other, more minor colds and such. Sena is extremely glad, though, that he never caught any of the stomach bugs! ;-)

In the spring of 2011, the immediate Spofford Family went on another vacation together. This time we went to Austin, TX. It was great to take Austin to Austin for his first vacation! We had a blast together as a family--we rented a house together, so all 10 of us could hang out at our leisure in addition to sightseeing around Austin. Seth, Sena, and Austin then took our second vacation of the year by going to WI for a week. Sena hadn’t been home in nearly three years, so it was wonderful, albeit emotionally exhausting, to see her family and friends. We loved introducing Austin to so many people! He must have travel in his blood because he was perfect for both trips! Seth and Sena then took their first Sans-Austin Vacation by going to Fredericksburg, TX with friends and renting a house there. Seth’s mom stayed with Georgia and Austin, and we had a blast relaxing, shopping, and getting to spend time with our friends!

Seth is on his third year at Michaels and still really enjoys it. He’s only been doing a handful of travel this past year, which has been great for Sena. Because, though Sena loves her position as SAHM, it has taken some adjustment (as does any new position). And, with all the illness and injury around here, they’ve been really flexible when Seth’s needed to take sick time because Sena needed to call in sick.

Austin, who turned 1 October 20^th, 2011, participated in his first extracurricular activity over the summer—swim lessons! He loved being in the water, making splashes, ‘jumping’ in off the side, and ended the session by being able to hold his breath underwater for 10 seconds! Starting in the fall, Austin began attending ‘school’ one day a week at a local church. It’s technically a Mother’s Day Out program, but he has been learning things and is already bringing home different art projects they helped him create. He also attends Bible Study Fellowship with Sena each Wednesday and really enjoys his teachers.

Seth is now on our community’s Pool Board helping to restructure/save it as well as being on the Teaching Team and Welcome Team for our Sunday School class, and is the Block Captain for our street in our Crime Watch organization. Seth got a bike for his birthday this past summer and has really enjoyed taking long, lone rides on Saturday mornings. Sena continues to maintain the community website (ParkForestDallas.org) as well as coordinate community emails/events. The biggest hit this year was a Community-Wide Thrift Sale Weekend that occurred in both the spring and in the fall. Sena also creates the newsletter for Crossroads, our Sunday School class. She still spends her ‘free’ time doing crafts like scrapbooking and painting, but has added blogging to her list of hobbies and thoroughly enjoys showcasing family pictures/experiences through that venue (anorthernbellesblog.blogspot.com)!

We feel extremely blessed and are grateful for your love and support during the past year!

Our Advent Calendar

This is our Advent Calendar. It's new this year. I bought it from the Navy Mango Etsy shop run by my friend Lisa. She created one for herself last year and I begged her to make me one. Well, come July, she put them on sale on her site, and I snatched one up! Good thing I acted quickly, too, because she got so overloaded with orders she had to start refusing business. I LOVE it and am SO excited to start using it!

Each pocket contains a different ornament that you hang on the buttons on the tree. Each ornament has a different scripture lesson to go along with it that serves as a way to remember the real reason for the season, and the ornament is designed to reflect the lesson. I have hung the calendar on the wall in our kitchen. We have been taking out and hanging the ornaments at dinnertime so that we can talk about the lessons/scripture/meaning together as a family. One of us reads the scripture and the other gets to guess what the ornament will look like once pulled from it's pouch. I'm thrilled to have added this to our holiday traditions!

Here are a few pictures of our current progress. Thanks, Christina, for the suggestion of showing some of the ornaments! (I want to add a note about how wonderful the handmade quality is of this calendar. Everything is tremendously detailed, too!)

Our Christmas Countdown Calendar

Beginning last year, Seth and I decided that we wanted to make the most of this time of the year and not allow certain opportunities to pass us by. I think the fact that we had Austin made it all the more meaningful to us, but as we both love the Christmas season, it would be a great idea to do if we were still just the two of us. 

We began with a lengthy discussion/semi-heated debate about what to even call what we were doing. Many people use the word "Advent" in doing something like this, but Seth was adamant that using that word implied stuff for Christ/God/His Birthday, not just things like mailing cards and watching movies. It was very important to Seth that we not confuse the two things by combining the terms. I now agree with him, though I'm sure some people think its simply semantics. (This is similar to how I feel about Santa. I'll decorate with Santa, but not take Austin to sit on his lap or tell Austin that certain gifts come from him. I don't want to teach him that he exists. Because he doesn't. Sure, there are movies of him and decorations of him, but I feel differently about those things. Again, some people might think that's nit-picking or splitting hairs, and that's fine. I'm not suggesting you must follow our lead, I'm simply sharing why we do what we do.)

So, we came up with the title of a "Christmas Countdown Calendar" (CCC for short) which is separate from our Advent Calendar. So, we do both, separately, and the things on each are very different. The CCC isn't based on the church calendar, and isn't based on scripture teachings. It's simply a way for us to get all the holiday activities on the calendar so that we don't miss the chance to do it. (Our Advent Calendar is the subject of another post entirely!)

A good friend of mine remembered that we did this last year and she emailed me asking for the list of things we did. She wanted to create her own. What a compliment! When I talked with her on the phone about it, giving her the list of things we did last year, she encouraged me to do a blog post about it. So, here is that post.

  

The Spofford Christmas Countdown Calendar:

Day 1: Mail Christmas Cards

Day 2: Attend a Performance (The Nutcracker @ The Windspear is this year's)

Day 3: Host 2nd Annual National Lampoon's Ugly Sweater Party

Day 4: Final Christmas Shopping

Day 5: Wrap Presents

Day 6: IBC Women's Christmas Dinner

Day 7: Watch Home Alone

Day 8: Watch A Charlie Brown Christmas

Day 9: Drive Around to see Lights

Day 10: Make and Deliver Cookies to our Neighbors

Day 11: Seth and Austin Decorate Cookies with Nonnie

Day 12: Go to A Cherry Christmas (neighbor who has lights set to music on a radio station!)

Day 13: Watch Love Actually

Day 14: Dinner & Elf with Nonnie/Gramps

Day 15: Watch It's a Wonderful Life

Day 16: Watch Frosty

Day 17: Crossroads Christmas Party

Day 18: Small Group: FAMILY Christmas Party

Day 19: Watch A Christmas Story

Day 20: Nieman's Window Display

Day 21: Watch A White Christmas

Day 22: NorthPark Trains

Day 23: 2012 Planning

Day 24: Christmas Eve. Service, Dinner, and Present Opening

Day 25: Christmas Day with the Spoffords

This year's list is a bit different than last year's list for three main reasons: Seth will be in Ohio one entire weekend (for a friend's wedding), he has club soccer one night/week and will therefore not be home to participate in anything, and we're in a Small Group which adds three events to our calendar over the course of these 25 days. So, in general, this December is much fuller than last year. Because of some non-Christmas stuff.

I do expect, however, for the things to change from year to year. As God blesses us with more kids, and those kids get older, the things that we'll able to do will be different. I can't wait to add tons of crafts to the calendar!

The Spofford Christmas Countdown Calendar

I bought this 12x12 piece of paper at Michaels last year and cut it down a bit in order to mat it on a red 12x12 piece. The door and windows literally open up, and that's how we've chosen to display our CCC. I hang it via magnets to the door leading to our garage. It's not really for decorating, but to have a fun way to know what we're doing each day.

Do you have any ideas of things we could add to the list either this year or future years? Make a comment below to let me know. I'd LOVE more ideas!

"Goals" not "Resolutions"

Several years ago, when I still worked in Housing at Georgia Tech, my then-boss shared with me that she and her husband sit down each December and come up with a list of goals for the coming year. She made a point to tell me that they don't come up with "Resolutions," but rather "Goals." I didn't understand the distinction until she went into further detail.

The difference in their mind (and now mine as well) is that resolutions are things you want to do better, fix, change, get better at, etc. A very common example is losing weight. Goals are simply things you want to accomplish. An example of a goal is going on a week-long family vacation. Goals aren't things 'to change,' but simply 'to do.'

Now, all these years later, Seth and I make a point each December to sit down and come up with a list of goals for the following year. In case the idea of doing so inspires any of you who read my blog, I thought I'd write about the concept and include a few of our examples from our past and the future (2012 goals). (I think it's also important to note that we sit down at the end of each month and make a plan for the following month. We found that we'd otherwise 'book' ourselves with something less important and then wouldn't be able to do certain things because the opportunity flew past us.)

I know that some people reading this will think that calling them something other than resolutions is splitting hairs, just semantics, or something, but for us, it's really taken the pressure off. If we don't meet one of our goals (meaning it doesn't end up happening), there isn't this guilt of having broken a resolution. We simply didn't get around to that particular thing and can add it to the following year's list. As do most people, it seems, we keep ourselves pretty busy, so it's easy for a month or even a year to go by without having done some of the bigger things we'd hoped to do. Setting a list of goals has helped us to narrow our focus and do more of the important things and less just letting life pass us by. The opportunities don't go flying by us this way. It feels like we've taken charge of how we spend our time rather than just floating along, wasting time. It's been a really good thing for us. (Thanks Sheree!)

Some examples of goals: (some of which we've done and some of which we haven't)

-week-long trip to WI

-Spofford Family Vacation (all 10 of us)

-Plano hot air balloon festival

-host a Dinner & Games night each month

-bake cookies and deliver them to neighbors at Christmas time

-host Thanksgiving

-host Easter

-enroll Austin in swim lessons

-have nieces and nephew over 2 nights/year

-go on a babymoon

-buy new computer

-new retaining wall and fence

-buy a new car

-join a small group

-join a book club

-go on a girls' weekend

-go to the TX state fair

-new kitchen

In case you feel inspired, I want to also share the logistics of how we make this work. Each December, we simply get a piece of paper out and write down all the things we want to do in the coming year. We typically use local event calendars, Seth's scheduled vacation days calendar, as well as any schedules related to Bible studies or other things we're involved with for this process. We buy a desk calendar (those big, 2'x3', flat calendars) and begin writing immovable stuff on it. So, we write festivals and other planned events (like holidays) on it for the whole year.

Then, we come back each month to look at the things that are already written (in pencil!) on the wall calendar, and add things to it as we are inclined/available. If the goal doesn't involve a date on a calendar, we'll check in with each other each month to see where we stand with it--how much money do we have saved for that big purchase at this point, should we wait two more months to buy it, should we schedule people to give us a quote for that home repair, etc. We don't display the wall calendar, we just use it as a visual when we're talking about stuff.

We use a Creative Memories Everyday Display Board which I update each month with the happenings of that particular month. I have color-coded squares for each person for the big things for that person that month, and I print a copy of that month's calendar on white cardstock on which I then write our schedule for the coming month. It helps to have this displayed in the kitchen so we can always see what's going on and when.

It just so happened that our printer ran out of ink on December's calendar, making it more Christmas-y. :-)

Hopefully I've done a thorough enough job explaining our goal setting that you can begin doing it yourself, but not too much that I've completely bored you. ! And if you're not interested in doing it yourself, then you at least have gotten a better glimpse into how this household works. I really do love that we do this, though, and highly recommend it for everyone!! Happy Goal-ing! :-)

Just Call Me "Pollyanna." (But only if you know what that means.)

I have often been referred to as a "Pollyanna." I think of this as a compliment. But only if the person actually knows what they are talking about. So, I intend to clear things up a bit. Excuse me for a moment while I go on a bit of a rant.

First of all, if you are not familiar enough with the movie to know the implications of what you're saying, then you shouldn't be making implications related to it at all. That's like me making a remark about so-and-so being "very republican." Or "very democrat." I have absolutely no idea what that means (I simply do not follow or understand or, really, even care about politics.). So, to make a comment about someone in relation to politics could really only be ignorant on my part.

The biggest issue I get with people misunderstanding what it means to be called a "Pollyanna" is that people misuse the term for a synonym for "Goodie Two Shoes," meaning she never does anything wrong... implying that this person (me, in this scenario) has never made a mistake, gotten in trouble, let people down, etc. When people make this implication, I wonder if they've ever even seen the movie. I mean, this is the girl who sneaks out of the house past dark to attend an event her guardian doesn't want her to attend. The entire climax of the movie is set around her being disobedient! She is certainly not someone who's always perfectly behaved.

The second most common issue that people make mistakes with this label is implying that being a "Pollyanna" is someone who thinks she's perfect or otherwise thinks very highly of herself. Or, at least thinks others should think very highly of her. And sometimes people even indicate that being a "Pollyanna" is someone who not only thinks highly of herself, and thinks others should think highly of her, but then in addition, thinks lowly of everyone else (looks down upon others). This also makes me want to scream! And this comparison also makes it quite obvious to me that said person has never seen the movie. Or, at least not recently enough to accurately know what they are talking about.

The third most common issue is that people think a "Pollyanna" is never in a bad mood, is never grumpy, but is rather always smiling, and always perfectly happy. Have these people seen the end? Where she's in the bed refusing to talk to people? Have they seen the part where she tells off the grouchy old lady and then stomps off? She doesn't seem to be in a very great mood to me!

What it really means to be a "Pollyanna" is to be a person who is loving, genuine, kind, giving, caring, sincere, and views the world as half full rather than half empty.

Being a "Pollyanna" means being someone who loves everyone equally. She loves her disconnected, rich aunt as much as the orphan boy as much as the maid (and maid's fiance), as much as the crotchety old woman who's convinced she's dying (Mrs. Snow). She greets everyone with the same smile and gives the same pieces of herself to each of them. She doesn't discriminate in her friendships and she doesn't hold grudges. She gives second chances equally, and the entire town comes to love that about her. (But that doesn't mean she won't give you a piece of her mind should she desire to!)

Being a "Pollyanna" doesn't mean that your life is full of only good things (the girl is an orphan, for goodness sake!), but it does mean taking all things head-on and then looking for the silver lining. In a poignant scene with two grouchy maids, she tells them about how she plays The Glad Game. The is the epitome of being a "Pollyanna." She acknowledges the less-than-desirable thing/situation, and then finds something, anything to be glad about within it. They try to stump her by asking about being required to have a certain food each Sunday which gives them "sour stomachs." She pauses just a minute before coming up with the fact that they can be glad that they have 7 whole days before they have to eat it again. ! That, my friends, is what Pollyanna is about. And, what I'm about.

I don't claim to be perfect. I don't claim to be completely obedient (or that I'm never doing anything wrong). I certainly don't look down upon others that are different than I am or that make different choices than I would. I love them all the same. I might even just give you a piece of my mind, should I believe the situation to require it. ;-) And when really bad things happen (like her being paralyzed at the end of the movie), I might be quite down, sad, grumpy, upset, etc. I'm not without negative emotions. But it does mean that after sitting with the situation for a bit, I will forge ahead, focusing on that one small thing that's positive. Even if it's that I don't have to go through this again for 7 more days.

So, feel free to call me "Pollyanna." I think of it as a compliment. I LOVE it when people say that about me. But only if you've seen the movie. Recently. And you know what you're talking about. And if it's obvious you don't, just know that I might just give you that piece of my mind. :-)

For more information, check out this link.

Happy Thanksgiving! 2011

This Thanksgiving was our biggest yet!  We had 15 adults and 6 kids (all 6 and under, 3 of which were 14 months and younger!). There was four generations of family as well as several of our closest friends in attendance.  

Seth and I provide the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, lefse, and drinks. We ask that each household contribute something to the meal. People brought broccoli, green bean casserole, hashbrown casserole, fresh fruit, lime jello, sweet potato casserole, and rolls. And for dessert we had coconut cream pie, pumpkin pie, a mocha-something-or-other icebox cake, and brownies. We had lots of yummy food as well as great dinner conversation.

As is our tradition, we took time during the meal to each say what we are thankful for this year. Even the two oldest kids participated, and I love that they join us in this tradition. Things ranged from being thankful for the troops, to family, to a particular family member being in heaven, to long-lasting friendships, to God providing beyond the needs, but our wants as well. It was very heart-warming to hear what everyone had to say and I am excited about the opportunity to scrapbook all the responses via the leaves I had set out on the table (see previous post).

It was a wonderful, albeit a bit full (in more ways than one!), day. :-) Happy Thanksgiving!

A Gorgeous Picture of my set table. Thanks Carla!

Highlighting the place cards and the Thankful For leaves.

Everyone except the 5 youngest kiddos.

The oft-Packer Backers wearing Cowboys stuff on Thanksgiving.

Most of the crew, watching the end of the game.

I loved seeing all the kids on the floor in the center of the room like this!

I included this picture solely because of how sweet Delaney is being to Austin in this photo. LOVE cousin love!

And, both the Cowboys AND the Packers won, so this 'House Divided' was very happy football-wise!

Adults Say the Darnedest Things!

The following are real conversations I've had with people. And you always thought it was kids who say the darnedest things! Enjoy!!!

Said when I was getting a new bra, about halfway through the pregnancy:
Lady Bra Fitter: "When are you due?"
Me: "October 23rd."
LBF: "Oh, you seem so big to be only halfway through. Is it twins?"
Me (not humored): "Nope. Not twins."
LBF: "Oh, well, are you sure? I mean, have they checked?"
Me (now really not humored): "Yes. They have checked. Not twins. Just fat, I guess!"
conversation ended abruptly, reason unknown

Said by a couple, first time having met them, when Austin was about 5 months:
New Couple: "Oh, he's so little. I remember when our son was that small. How old is he?"
Me: "5 Months. How old is your son?"
NC: "5 Months. pause... Austin is just so little!"
conversation topic immediately changed by my husband. what I didn't then say was "and yours is so fat!"

Said by a lady stranger in Pei Wei as we were walking past her table:
Lady Stranger: "Oh, he's so cute! How old is he?"
Us: "9 months."
LS: "And is he crawling?"
Us: "Nope. He's not interested in crawling or even staying on his belly long enough to attempt to crawl."
LS (to Austin): "Oh, well, you'd better hurry up or your math skills will suffer!"
conversation ended because we kept walking. too stunned to say much of anything in response.

Said by a lady stranger in El Fenix as we (Austin included) were walking past her:
Lady Stranger: "That little boy is so cute! His shoes are too small."
Mike roared with laughter and we all kept walking.

Said over the phone by a person with whom I was trying to make an appointment:
Appointment Maker: "Last Name?"
Me: "Spofford. S like Sam, P like Paul, O, FF like Frank, O, R, D like Dog."
AP: "And, your first name?"
Me: "Sena. S, E, N, A"
AP: "S,e,n,a. Sena?"
Me. "Yes."
AP: "Is that it what it says on your driver's license?"
Me (after a fit of laughter laced with a bit of sarcasm): "Yes! What else would it say?"
AP (in a not-humored voice): "I just needed to make sure that was your full name."
Me: "Oh. That's not what I thought your question implied. Yes, that's my full first name."
funny thing about that appointment is that I never showed up for it

Preparing for 15. Adults.

I love Thanksgiving. Love it. It's my favorite holiday. But, more on that later. This post is about some of the preparations for the day, not about the day itself. 

This year, Seth and I will be hosting our 4th Thanksgiving. Our 4th and by far our biggest! 15 adults and 6 kids (6 and younger) at last count. Whew! But, seriously, the more the merrier. We love hosting, and are thrilled to be spending the day with our friends and family, but there is some serious planning involved with a group that large for a sit-down dinner. And part of that planning, my friends, is place cards. 15 of them. 

Given that the group is a little eclectic this year and fairly large, I wanted the place cards to be fairly large (so as to be seen from several feet away, down the table) and quite simple (so as to not take my entire life over the next week). 

Here's my process:

15 pieces of brown (5x8.5), 15 pieces of golden (2x4ish), 15 felt turkeys (from Michaels), and 1 brown Sharpie

fold the brown pieces of cardstock, write the names on the golden pieces

combine, and you're done!

Each year during Thanksgiving dinner, we go around and say at least one thing for which we are thankful. It was a tradition we brought to the Spofford family when we started hosting (I'm sure I read about it somewhere because we didn't do it in my family growing up), and now even the kids love it. They look forward to it, talk about it, and my oldest niece, Delaney (age 5 then) was so excited about it last year she wanted to be last. She wanted to be the last person to express what they were thankful for. I loved that she had been thinking so much about her opportunity to do so that she had a preference about when she shared it. LOVED it.

I was reading in a magazine this year that families should take time at Thanksgiving to record what they are each thankful for. I loved the idea immediately! Since we already take time during the meal to express our gratitude, all I had to do was come up with a way to record what people say. I thought of several things, none of which were very creative or exciting, and then a blog had an idea of each person writing what they are thankful for on a feather-shaped piece of paper and sticking the 'feathers' into a yarn turkey. It was a cute idea, but I wanted to scrapbook these pieces, not create a centerpiece. And so, the idea was planted of having them be separate pieces tied to a themed whole. And then I had it. The perfect idea!

I used my Cricut (pronounced like the bug: cricket) to cut out a tree and some leaves. I wrote "I am thankful for:" on each leaf, in different directions/places, so that when I scrapbook them, they can be semi-randomized on the page. I plan on asking everyone who can write (we have all the speaking kids say something) to write down what they share and to sign their name. This way I'll have a record of what everyone said from year to year.

I have some leaves that I plan on spreading along the table as decoration, and these will be there too, one near each plate. I'll be hiding pens underneath the fairly large place cards, and people can write their thing down whenever they feel like it during the meal. I'll collect them when we're done eating, and scrapbook them whenever I get to that spot in our album. I'm SO excited about this!

The Gaylord and Friends

We went to the Gaylord Texan Saturday night to see all of the decorations. Mike had stayed there for training earlier in the week and had told us about the display. It was $12.99 to park and free to walk around. There's a Santa to take pictures with, and several other fun activities (all which cost money), but I'm not sure I would do it again. It was fun to do this one time, with out-of-town friends, but was lackluster, in my opinion, and a little to warm inside the atrium.

In any case, we got some great photos!

This was on the side of a life-size gingerbread house. one you could walk into, etc.

Austin loved watching the train go around this village beneath the tree.

The rotating tree was about 10 feet up in the air.

Austin with Uncle Mike and Auntie Anne Marie. (Love the ring on Mike's finger! ;-)

The newlyweds posing in the sleigh.

The newlyweds posing by a fireplace.

Austin posing on Santa's chair. Which we had to wait seemingly forever for. The guy wouldn't leave!