For the days after Thanksgiving when leftover turkey is aplenty and your desire to cook was left behind with the skinny notch on your belt, here is an EASY yummy recipe. One of my kid's kindergarten teachers sent this home one year and we really like it. It goes together in a few minutes and I found that I can use up the dark meat in it that the family doesn't like to eat plain.

Gobble Good Turkey Casserole

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 package onion soup mix
1 cup uncooked white rice
1 1/2 cups milk
2-3 cups leftover turkey

Combine all ingredients in a large casserole dish. Bake covered 45 minutes at 350 degrees.

At our Thanksgiving dinner my husband asked if we wanted to go around the table and say something we are thankful for. Tabitha got to go first. She got up from her seat, went around the table, and told us she was thankful for the turkey.

The month of November has gone by very fast. I have had several things I meant to post as the month went by, but alas, they seemed to be the last thing on my list. But today is a perfect day for blogging. It is raining outside, I have the smell of homemade apple pie drifting through my home, so really it is a great day to cuddle up with a book. But since having two four year olds around is not very conducive to relaxing on the couch without being interrupted every other paragraph, catching up on the blog seems to be the next best thing.

A Close Call for the Tooth Fairy

Back at the beginning of the month Gracie lost a tooth. For some reason she thinks I am the tooth fairy. In a last ditch effort to convince herself the tooth fairy is real, she decided she'd try to catch her. Luckily for the tooth fairy, all Gracie ended up with was a jar of fairy dust.

5k Fun Run

Also at the beginning of the month I reached a goal that I have been wanting to do for a long time: run a 5K. My husband and I both ran, it was my first, but not George's. He really ran just to support me, and was an awesome coach. I was worried because I am a pretty slow runner, but there were so many people there at different fitness levels that it didn't matter. Although my finish time is nothing to brag about, I beat my practice time by seven minutes! Woo Hoo! It was a fun experience and I hope to do another one in January

Fall Decorating

I enjoy decorating for the Holidays. I remember once when I was growing up Mom saying she couldn't wait to see what I decorated my house like when I grew up. I don't think she meant holiday decor as much as she meant what my house would look like in general, but every time I put up my seasonal things I wish she and the rest of the family was closer so I could share it with them. So here is the next best thing. Nothing fancy, but still fun.


Preschool Pilgrims
Tim and Tab had their "feast day" at preschool yesterday and came out in their Pilgrim attire, having eaten chicken noodle soup, corn bread, and pumpkin pie.

Traditions
We don't have a lot of Thanksgiving traditions, other than the big feast and expressing what we are thankful for on that day, but here are a couple things we do to make Thanksgiving fun and meaningful:

Tom Turkey begins the month bare of tail feathers. We leave box of feathers out and throughout the month when we think of something we are thankful for we write it on a feather and add it to his tail. Even the preschoolers do their own "writing." By Thanksgiving Day he is arrayed in all the splendor of a Thanksgiving Turkey.
This is the second year we have made these fun Turkey Cupcakes. We make a bunch and then choose the best looking ones to take to friends.
Then we eat the mutant ones ourselves.There is November thus far in a nutshell. I hope everone has a great Thanksgiving!

Every year we do these things.

Every year I end up sewing costumes for my children. Never have I made six costumes in one year, but every year I end up in a sewing frenzy and searching stores for the accessories they "need" and I have to ask myself, "Why?"

Why, when I have a box of dress ups that I can't even get the lid on, and when the costumes I spent a lot of time constructing last year still fit, do I keep doing this every year?

Mostly, because my kids are only kids once. The magic of Halloween changes as you grow up. I can't help but want them to have fun memories in the costumes their mom made for them when they were kids. But also it's partly because (lucky for them) I like to sew and just seem to be in the mood for some creativity when the weather starts to change. This year I made three costumes, two children wore the same ones as last year (a miracle) and one child chose something from the dress up box.

They all looked fabulous and, except perhaps for an overload of candy, they had a magical Halloween. Didn't I warn them what all that candy would do to their teeth?