Gearing up for the Holidays!

Isn't she the cutest Dorothy EVER?!!! Honestly, I want those shoes. I got this costume from Target when we were in the States so she wasn't walking around with a bunch of other Dorothys. Except one who dared to come to our door...... 
You may notice my sad excuse for a mum behind her. If you could only see it now. I gave up watering it about 3 weeks ago. I just lost the will. It's as dead as a doornail now but I won't put it to the curb yet. I'll keep it up for Thanksgiving so I have something on my porch. It blends in to everything else that's "sleeping" for the winter. 
Around here, Thursday will just be another day. In this house, it will be turkey central! Our community moves onto Christmas right after Halloween. Yesterday was the Santa parade (we've never gone) and pumpkins have disappeared from front steps to be replace by tacky lawn ornaments and colourful lights. Not so in this abode! First things first! 

I like to celebrate it because first of all, you can never have too much turkey. But more than that, it keeps me connected to my roots. I think of all my family celebrating on that day and pretend that it's a holiday here too! We watch the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, have a random football game on in the background and officially bring out the first Christmas movie of the year - A Muppet Christmas Carol. In the weeks leading up to the big event, I like to incorporate American history of the pilgrims and meanings of the traditions that may differ from the ones here. Will doesn't remember living in the US and Zanna never has. 

As usual, we are opening up our homes to guests and I'm most excited about that! I love welcoming people into our home and serving them for an evening however I can. It's also an important exercise to teach the children - biblical hospitality is a way to express our faith and love for one another. It doesn't always come naturally and often includes some sacrifices to be made. But when we consider the grace we've been given, it's not hard to extend that to others!

In school news, Will's wrapped up his SHEP classes in Chemistry and Canadian History. He did some "cabbage chemistry" for his science project and showed how the colour of cabbage changes when an acid or base is introduced. We also FINALLY finished our almost 3 month study of India. We had a lot of great resources and we were enjoying it that we all learned so much.  Our final resource was a biography on Mother Teresa. Next stop - the Arab world. We're learning about the history of this area, the rise of Islam and culture. Very interesting.  

We've been up to some fun new things at church and after 10 years the words fun and new are readily accepted! A few of us ladies had a morning of cooking in my kitchen in an effort to have a casserole and several soups to offer to those members that are sick or in need in some way. We call it "Divine Morsels". We enjoyed the cooking together among friends and looked forward to passing on our mornings work to people we might just help in a little way. 

We also started a choir! This is a ground up endeavor but we're trying our best to glorify God in song! So now we have a choir night and we'll start singing in front of people for Advent.  

Finally, next week we look forward to attending the play "Pride and Prejudice" and the ballet "the Nutcracker". Let the holidays begin.......