Our beautiful, Mary, has a birthday...

May it be a wonderful birthday.
May you know how much you are loved
and wished the very best life has to offer.

Happy Birthday to a daughter-in-law who lights up our lives and makes us smile.

That's what the promise is for...

Indulge me, I love this and want to forward it on to the ones I love. That's what the promise is for...

Thanksgiving

Add a little gravy, rolls and fresh bread (by William), phone calls, skypes from England and you have the perfect Thanksgiving dinner! My cup runneth over.

GRANDAD'S Thanksgiving Prayer:
Father God,
thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Thank you for life, for our lives and for the lives of our loved ones.
Thank you for our health, our food, our homes, our work and our schools and teachers.
Thank you for our Church.
Thank you for this day of family and wonderful food, prepared by loving hands.
Thank you for the 102 original Pilgrims, who came to Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620, of whom only 56 survived that first, harsh winter. Thank you for the bounteous harvest in 1621 which they celebrated with a great feast, along with 91 Native American Indians, who had helped them survive that terrible winter.
We are grateful that President Lincoln, in 1863, established the last Thursday in November as our National Day of Thanksgiving.
Help us to be ever mindful of our many blessings and of the needs of others.
AMEN.

Mike, Mary, Joe and Isabelle went to Washington DC this year for a Thanksgiving, educational holiday. They have been exploring all day and were headed for a Thanksgiving dinner when we caught up with them by phone.

Shannon and Molly were also in Washington, visiting colleges and having Thanksgiving dinner with 33 members of Molly's family and their friends. What a celebration that must have been!!!

Kristin cooked for her family, Beth and Adrienne. Adrienne is healing nicely from her recent surgery; and she and Beth brought a delicious squash casserole to add to the table.

"We're going out on a limb this year, adding some new dishes to the rotation...cauliflower gratin and roasted brussels sprouts with red onion and bacon.  I can't wait to set the holiday table!" - Kristin



Kate did a reverse Thanksgiving in England! She prepared a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for Simon, her hostess (Simon's mother) and I am not sure what other family members were there. What a treat that must have been and I love the idea of our Kate sharing our family traditions in the mother country. The circle is complete and thanks to God for Skype!

Let me take a moment to thank, Kim, Tom, Andrew, Emily and William for giving thanks in church with us this morning, for bringing wonderful food to the house to add to the sumptuousness of our beautiful Thanksgiving table and for filling my heart and arms with love the rest of the day.

I am a blessed mother; you all honored me today in ways untold. I love you so much and in every way I am grateful. It has been the best of Thanksgivings and so good to think about all of us under the same bright sky.

I am thankful for beautiful, bright students that I call GRAND

Grandad and I were treated to a very special day today.   First an early morning stop for Grandparents' Day at St. Martin’s.  Isabelle greeted us, and confidently did her job as hostess, showing us the elementary students' art work and the plans and progress of the school’s new building program.  We were treated to a lovely breakfast, songs from the children and touching stories about their grandparents, told by a number of selected students.   It is plain to see why Joe and Issy are doing so well academically!

After leaving, we headed for Roswell to have turkey dinner with William at his school.  As he came off the play ground and spotted us, we were again greeted with a big smile and a welcoming hug.  It was pajama day at River Eves (last day at school before Thanksgiving break), anyway, William promptly pulled clean clothes from his book bag and hurried into the bathroom to change so he could properly take us to lunch.   It was a good thing too, since his classmates thought Grandad (dashingly dressed in a dark three piece suit) might have been a “presidential candidate”!  William follows suit on tie-day Friday and everyday he just plain shines.

These are indeed precious moments.  Ford, Andrew, Joe, Morgan and Emily, no longer have Grandparents Day; too old you know, but blessings abound and I wouldn't take a million dollars for one, past, present or future day with any one of the Magnificent Nine.

Joe's picture made it again in St. Martin's school magazine called Patterns.  This time he got a full page!  Looking good JOE! 



Starting the college tours!

Kim, Tom and crew hosted Shannon, Molly and Ford to Berry College for one of many College visits that Ford has been (and will be) making before deciding where to go to school next year.

The perks of this visit was that you could horse around with your cousins instead of working hard to look like you know what your doing!

Ford even tried out the baseball field while the others cheered.

Okay...so this could be an Omen!

Anyway, it was a good experience; Tom and Kim got to go back to where they spent much of their happy youth, Andrew got to start his tours early and practice his driving, Ford broadened his knowledge of how schools can look different, I'm sure William got to run around and the family had a lot of fun together!

Good luck Ford! We know you will do well where ever you land and we'll keep a light on for you.

Kate with Simon in Cornwall, England

Kate at Tintagel, Cornwell

Simon and Kate at Tintagel Castle

Tintagel, Cornwell

Finding her own fairy house.

Luxulyn Valley

Kate and Simon

Just another wonderful day in Neverland. :)

DISCLAIMER:  All of these photographs were stolen off facebook.

Get Ready!

Hey! Over the mountain...A thousand indians are coming for dinner! Don't worry, they are bring Turkey and corn!!!!

Three days at Northcroft

The leaves had mostly fallen, the Hemlocks were still green.

In the cloudless sky, the sun was bright and at night the full moon beamed.

A chill in the air gave a hint of winter, on the ground a carpet of leaves.

Shadows were long and peace was within me as far as I could see.

                                                                                                From the Ma in me-MPC

Now, I'm ready to be Thankful and GO SHOPPING! :)

Ma's salute to the Veteran

My Uncle Kenneth (mother's brother) sent this poem to me this morning. I was touched and thought I would share. On every scrap piece of paper she could find, "Ma" wrote poems all her life, even as a young girl. No one knew until her death the hidden talents of this God fearing, humble home maker and mother. I remember her only as being old, with a loud heavy voice, hard of hearing and picnics on the front room floor...I had just turned nine years old when she died.


"This poem was written by Ethel Mai George Floyd on Armistice [now Veterans] Day, evidently in 1918, since she mentions her son, Elroy, as being 16 years old. Thanks Mama."

1 May 1880 - 22 July 1956

ARMISTICE DAY

I for two reasons celebrate

The lovely great Armistice date

We heard the news - a peaceful sign

Sixteenth birthday of that boy of mine

Each year the glad Armistice Day

Comes first - And then we lay the tray

We think of all the boys that gave

Their lives - and did their country save

And then we think of those that's here

Who also served without a fear

We fall right back then at our own

We must not leave our boy alone.

For on each grand Armistice Day

Our boy he has a glad birthday

We raise our eyes to God in prayer

For Mothers of the war graves there

And always think of what may come

An awful war may claim our own.

Thank you Uncle for sharing and caring about our family history...

Adrienne is recuperating...

Adrienne is recuperating at home following significant surgery to repair an injury to her shoulder which she received while assisting a large, combative patient in the hospital. The surgery went well, but she will have a lengthy recovery period, followed by months of therapy, to regain full use of her shoulder. In the meantime, this Nurse is a patient, and Beth is her caregiver. We all pray for a complete recovery for Adrienne and strength for Beth, as they work together to regain their health and strength.


Get well soon, Adrienne!

And all Chatterbox readers say...

YEAH!

Favorite Book Character Day!

Assignment:  Bring your favorite book to class and dress as your favorite book character.

Kudos to Mom and Dad for making it possible for William so believable.  All it took was a pair of jeans, a yellow t-shirt striped with blue duct tape, lots of gel and black hair spray and William turned into...

  

I'd say he gets an A!!!

For William...
http://www.gocomics.com/printable/bignate/2011/11/04/

Anybody else done any exciting school projects lately?

Opening Night of Pygmalion

Emily (SISTER) and Kimberly (MOM) congratulate ANDREW on his opening night performance as the love sick, Freddy, in Bernard Shaw's, Pygmalion (the original, nonmusical version of "My Fair Lady").  Excellent character acting, Andrew, just flawless!  Hope the show has a great run!  Break-a-leg!!

P.S.  Freddy looked a lot like Grandad in his three piece suite...:)

More Halloween Treats!

This is Felly...our sweet friend, brought to us by Rob and endeared to us at Judy/Louis' home and at Nana's on special occasions and holidays. Felly had her first American Halloween last year and just loved it. She wanted to dress up and go for the treat, so Rob drove her around (after all she was as small as most of the children) and let her enjoy the experience!  She couldn't wait this year to do the same!!

 Felly is from Thailand and has been here on a work program, as a nanny, for two and a half years. She has fulfilled her obligation and is required to go back to Thailand next month.   There she will joyfully be reunited with her family but also have to face with them the devastation of the resent floods. Her family has yet to be able to return to their home to assess damage. I can only pray that all has not been lost and more can be salvaged.

Thank you Felly, for letting us into your life and becoming part of ours. You have been a joy to know and love. I wish you nothing but the best.  We will miss you a lot...Auntie Merry

You can keep up with Felly on her blog at:  http://teetinietime.blogspot.com/