NOVEMBER TEAM CHAT - JOYFULNANA'S A-TEAM

It isn't Thanksgiving at our home without fresh cranberry relish made by grinding oranges, apples and cranberries in an old hand meat grinder and sweetened with sugar. Usually the grands come the week before to help make it. We will only have one family with us this year and our son might drop by that day or the next. I cook the turkey, but Village Inn cooks my pies. LOL

Thanksgiving us big in my family. It will be 20 years this Thanksgiving that dh and I were hit by a drunk driver. They thought I would be DOA due to how mangled the car was but after a 10+ hour surgery I was alive. Had 6 surgeries and a lot of healing. That day forever changed my life.

I make a gf lf nf sf cf pimpkin pie filling that us made into mini crumble crust pies. I am also making an allergy friendly artichoke dip and gf lf cf sf nf ranch dressing.

I go to my parents early and help cook.

Not sure how much I will get done this month. I am making the name cards. And got 1 layout done.

Dd has her next ivig infusion Friday and has 4 appointments this month, 1 big one at CHLA with the only so cal connective tissue specialist. Ds and I will begin testing after that appointment. (hEDS) After that appointment we will head to AGPLA for some doll shopping.

So fun to hear about people's Thanksgiving traditions! My extended family is in a bit of a transition. I have done Thanksgiving for years, but offered two years ago to alternate Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve with my brother and sister in law. My kids hate it!! LOL! No one cooks like your own mom. I took a Thanksgiving dinner cooking class probably 20 years ago now and my menu is still very much based on that class. I am allergic to celery (I know, such a stupid allergy!) but that makes the stuffing a little iffy so I have a good one that I always use. It is my year for Thanksgiving at our house so my kids will be happy about that. I love making it all and our guests kind of shake their heads that the only thing I let people bring is the bread and wine. BUt I just like my menu the way I like it and have it down to a fine science getting it done by this point.

joyfulnana - I think there is not one thing wrong with picking up dinner and enjoying the day with family! A very nice tradition in itself.

nylene - I love that kind of cranberry salad! But I make a hot one and then my kids love the canned stuff to, so I stopped doing that one thinking three cranberry recipes might be a bit much. LOL! But your comment makes me want to make it again this year.

Dictionary - That would be so fun to go to Disney then! And good luck at the craft fairs. What do you sell?

@sunnycalimom - Wow! How very scary! I am sure you are extra thankful every year! It sounds like you have other health things going on too. Hope those things go well!


As far as the challenge for the month, we have a bust month so I am not sure how productive I am going to be. My mom's birthday is Monday and I started on a set of note cards to give her last night as part of her gift. ComplicatedLady - the note cards are basically a copy of your color block cards from last month's day 7 challenge. I ordered that die and am so excitied to make them for my mom! She will love them! I also went through the challenges and have about 6 pages in mind that I would like to do to start. I hope to get the photos edited and turned in to print today so I can get scrapping this weekend.

Dd had her third ivig infusion yesterday. Was a busy week as she was home all week due to illness, appointment, and medical needs.

Going to fix breakfast for the family and then sit down to scrap at least 2 layouts. Not sure if I want to do this years Halloween for both kids, past Christmas, or Day out with Thomas...

This year Thanksgiving will be different for us. It changed when our kids married and had their own families. Now the grandkids are mostly all in their late teens and want to go with their girl/boy friends for dinner. Also - one grand daughter is in India on a mission and won't be back until March. So Thanksgiving may be small. Which is OK - more turkey for me!

I finally got some time to scrap last night! Did two fall layouts for DGS's book. Hope I find some time this weekend to keep it going!

gramma, our grands are getting older too. We will have just one family here with a 18, 16 and 7 year old. I miss the days of lots of littles running around underfoot. However, the 7 year old (Alex) is active enough to equal several littles!

joyfulnana, I have been holed up making Christmas cards. They are almost finished. I stopped to make a layout today, but then back to finishing them tonight.

MDscrapaholic, did you post your pages? I'll have to go look.

It's kind of warped but we watch Adams Family Values 2. They do a skit at summer camp about the first Thanksgiving. 

I'm scrapping photos this month mostly using divided sheet protectors with lots of photos. Tracking points hasn't been too bad. I'm not the fastest either. 

We aren’t doing thanksgiving dinner until Saturday—our family isn’t traveling to visit until tomorrow.
Since today was a laid back day off, I got a bunch of cards made.
I finished about 20 and I have another 20 almost done!

We had a very lowkey Tday this year. My mom and our family have been through a lot ofver the last 4 months with my grandma decling, then going to be with our Heavely Father October 27th. So, this year, instead of doing a lot of cooking, and having tons of leftovers, we went to a place called Blue Mesa for a Tday buffet (We don't really like buffets, but this one is SO good, and well done.). They have everything from Tday fod to Tex Mex. Best of both worlds! It really didn't feel like Tday, and that made my mom a little sad, but she loved the food, and enjoyed the company. I told her that this year we all just needed to relax and refresh and reflect, and we could start a new tradition next year, doing whatever she wanted to do.

I cannot BELIEVE it's almost 2020. I remember when working for a scrapbook company doing customer service a few years back that I it surprised me when someone had a CC that expired in 2018. LOL Man, how time flies!

My total was 1253. I got a lot of points for the 70 Christmas cards I made this month. Now to get them all addressed and mailed.