Novembering :: Happy Good

I asked Audrey if Dagny could come hang out with me on Thursday this week. She sweetly acquiesced and they showed up at around one o'clock.

Audrey told me that Dagny and Erica had collected pine cones while on a walk recently, and piled them into a basket which they placed on the porch, beside their front door.

Subsequently, Dagny pointedly explained to her mother that those were decorations.

So I decided that I would enlist Dag's help in putting away my few only-slightly-scary, mostly graveyard-oriented, October lay-abouts (mainly from the dining table) and replacing them with full-on Thanksgiving decorations.

When I told her what we'd be doing, she displayed the amount of enthusiasm one might expect if a promise to play at the park had been mentioned, followed by visits to the ice cream parlor, donut shop, and candy store all on the same day.

After Dagny's midday refreshment (she asked for one of Papaw's yogrits, that being the blended yogurts TG likes to keep on hand for snacking), we traipsed upstairs and opened the bin that contains the autumnal decor.

I have a few baskets and various other things which we placed in the family room. Then we cleaned the table and prepared to decorate it.

But first, we went outside to complete the display I'd installed on Wednesday, around the green bench in front.

I'd stopped at Creech's roadside stand in Lexington on the way home from a photo shoot that day, because the mums and pumpkins are dramatically on clearance, the space needed for Christmas trees in only a few days.

All mums were two dollars (although mainly only yellow ones were left) apiece, with pumpkins and gourds going two for five. I got three mums and one pumpkin and I guess that tall one is a gourd.

If you buy pumpkins in October in South Carolina and arrange them outside, they promptly rot in the heat. It's not pleasant. I don't even try that any more.

After I fixed up the pumpkin with the wooden head and feathers to make him into a turkey, it was Dagny's turn to place the Happy Thanksgiving sign around his scrawny neck.

I don't know why she looks so miserable at the beginning of this video; trust me when I say, she wasn't. I think she was concentrating on her role in the drama and perhaps rehearsing mentally what she would say.

The word Thanksgiving is obviously new to her. She does much better with Christmas and is already talking about it regularly.

Then we went back inside and worked on our tablescape. We lit the candles and admired our handiwork.

First though, I remembered that for a long time, we've needed to update the pictures under the glass on our table.

We have new pictures of all the grandchildren, and within the next few months I will have a beautiful daughter-in-law and a second handsome son-in-law.

Dagny agreed it's more than time to shake things up, citing the fact that she was in the hospital at one time, and had been born. The whole scheme was a good idea, she confirmed.

Within the next few weeks we'll do the two couples' engagement shoots. I am hopeful that before Christmas, I'll find the wherewithal to update the table. It's a project. Stay tuned.

So here we are, less than three weeks from Thanksgiving. I am busy planning menus. It's still warm here, with highs in the low eighties predicted for the next several days.

I'll be grateful if it's cool and crisp and autumnal throughout the Thanksgiving holiday, and downright frosty after that, as we prepare for Christmas.

I think I'll get Dagny's help with those decorations too. It should be a spectacle. But first, this weekend we will Fall Back. That's always interesting.

Once, years ago, TG and I with all four of our small kids, arrived at church for Sunday School an hour early. It's never happened again but if it does, we'll do what we did that day: Locate, purchase, and consume donuts.

In other words, use the time wisely.

It's how we roll.

And that is all for now.

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Happy Friday :: Happy Good Weekend

Comments

[Cheryl]

Happy Good to Dagny! She is adorable! Love all the decorations she hung for the fall. The pumpkin turkey is a great idea!

I wanted to comment on the last post and now I cannot find it. I thought that your phone pics of the cemetery were great! I am wondering what the cemetery will look like in snow....maybe awesome! I would like to see mounds of snow heaped on angels' wings.

[Luna Crone]

Cool decorations!

I am one of those who actually likes the "Fall Back" time change. Actually, it's reverting to Nature's Time. To Time By The Sun. And I prefer that, to the nutty so-called Day Light Savings Time.

As a wise old Native American Indian said; "Only white man would think, that if he cut strip off top of blanket, and sewed it on bottom, he would make blanket longer." That says it, for me.

Happy return to Real Time!!!
Luna Crone

[Jennifer]

@Cheryl ... I don't know why you can't find the post, but I too would love to see some snow on the angel wings. I hope one time this winter you can do that for me! Or maybe send Chad, haahaaha. xoxo

@Luna ... Yes you're right; it's all good. It just takes some getting used to. I thought of you this evening when, on the way home from having dinner out, TG and I saw the beautiful unblinking bright, full moon. xoxo

[Sally]

Oh, how I loved hearing your and Dagny's voices! Ya'll are true southerners. :)

Beautiful decorations. I'm glad you let it be known when Thanksgiving is thinking that it's 3 weeks from yesterday?

I wish you well, and I'm very excited for the engagement photos!

xoxo

[Jennifer]

@Sally ... thanks dear, and I still plan to make it to St. Augustine and YOU sometime soon! And I'm looking forward to taking those engagement photos. It will be so exciting. xoxo

[Mari]

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this! Dagny is just precious, and I love 'happy good". I think happy good is a grand theme for many things! Your turkey pumpkin is so cute. I remember that from last year, and if I ever see anything like the parts that make him, I will snatch them up.
Looking forward to those engagement shots!

[Barb]

Dagny is in training to be an Interior Decorator. Sam would NOT be enthused by decorating, though he does like helping me water plants. I don’t like the time change - it has my sleeping messed up. I must get my rhythm back! Happy Thanksgiving to you and your Family. I love your family picture table.

[Judy]

Dagny is a chip off her grandma's tree! I love to hear little voices like hers.
Engagement photos--oh my! How fun!!

[Jennifer]

@Barb ... Sam watering plants, haaaha! So cute. Dagny won't have to do that as I don't dare keep plants. I hear you about the time change being a nuisance. Soon you'll be used to it, though! I'm wondering if you still get up with the birds and put on your skis and go out to take exercise in the snow. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you too -- and stay tuned for big changes to that table! xoxo

@Judy ... Her voice is a treasure. And I'm champing at the bit to take those engagement pictures. The days just drag by until those kids are available to spend most of a day at it. But won't it be fun. xoxo