Thanksgiving with the Steffes/Fessler Family

Nearly 50 family members gathered at my Grandma's house this year to celebrate Thanksgiving. Most of the Fessler's and all of the Steffes' were in attendance. We drove to Wien early Thursday morning and began watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The kids (and many of the adults) quickly grew tired of watching the parade so they moved the party downstairs where we had set up a miniature jump house. I love my family. How many of you had jump houses at your Thanksgiving celebrations?? That's what I thought.

Tim had the honor of preparing the two turkeys for dinner, one he roasted and the other he fried. He also made the stuffing. David looks like he was helping but I'm not convinced. ;)

The deep fryer was a hit. In addition to frying the turkey, they also fried up some doughnuts! YUM! How many of you had homemade doughnuts at your Thanksgiving?? I love my family.

Finally, we got to enjoy all the good food! Everyone brought something so there was more than enough food to feed all 50 of us. Here are a few scenes of the family enjoying the food and the company:

A Hasty Week of Giving Thanks- Day 5

Today is the last day of my week of thanks giving. I enjoyed looking back on the good times I've had these past few months. Today we're thankful for selfless giving this Holiday season. Last week, as Eric and I were figuring out how many Christmas cards we wanted to send this year, we realized we had accumulated many Christmas cards from previous years and some vintage cards I had purchased from a flea market. Many of them had lost their envelopes. We did a little research online to see what we could do with the cards.

We discovered Holiday Mail for Heroes, sponsored by the Red Cross. Regardless of what you think of the war, there are men and women serving for our country, veterans who have served for our country, and family members of soldiers who are praying for the safe return of their loved ones. Eric and I decided to send our spare cards to service members, family, and veterans through the Holiday Mail for Heroes program.

If you're interested, take a look at the guidelines below or visit this link:
http://redcrosschat.org/2009/10/27/holiday-mail-for-heroes-2/

Guidelines:

We will begin accepting cards on November 2nd. Send in your cards to the address below, and please read the guidelines carefully!

Holiday Mail For Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

All cards must be received no later than Monday, December 7th. Cards received after this date will unfortunately be returned to the sender. This deadline ensures enough time to sort and distribute cards before the holidays.

Do...

• Sign all cards
• Entitle cards “Dear Service Member, Family or Veteran”
• Limit cards to 15 per person or 50 for school class or business group
• Bundle groups of cards in single, large envelopes (there is no need to include individual envelopes and postage for cards)

Don’t...

• Send letters
• Include personal information such as home or email addresses
• Use glitter – excessive amounts can aggravate health issues of wounded recipients
• Include inserts of any kind as they must be removed in the screening process

A Hasty Week of Giving Thanks- Day 4

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today I'm thankful for time with family. I love the Holiday season, I get to spend more time with family this time of year than any other time. A few weeks ago I went up to my Grandma's house with my Dad and my Uncle Gary to help her decorate for Christmas. I had so much fun that as soon as I got home I had Eric help me decorate our place. We absolutely love Christmas-time. The glow from the tree lights make our house look so romantic. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

A Hasty Week of Giving Thanks- Day 3

Today I am thankful for health care professionals who encourage healing physically and emotionally. When my Mom was in the hospital recovering from her bilateral mastectomy, hysterectomy, and lymph node dissection her nurses allowed a visit from her baby boy, Truman.

Eric and I brought Truman dressed in his Frankenstein costume. The nurses loved him and it really put a smile on my mom's face.

A Hasty Week of Giving Thanks- Day 2

Today I am thankful for the power of Resolve. In August Eric and I moved to a new duplex. When we arrived, we were quite disappointed with condition of the carpets. We were told they had been steam-cleaned but they really looked horrible. We assumed they were just old carpets with many years worth of stains. On a whim, we decided to buy Resolve and see if we could fade the stains just slightly. Anything was worth a try.

This shows you what the stains looked like. There were stains like these throughout the duplex. With ONE application of resolve....

...our carpet looked like this! The stains are COMPLETELY gone! There isn't even a hint of a stain left.

A Hasty Week of Giving Thanks- Day 1

I haven't been a very faithful blogger the last couple of weeks. My life has been pretty crazy, between homework, research, thesis writing, and family business, it is a wonder I have time to breathe. But, since I have this week off from school, I thought I would use this time to catch up my blogging friends on the happenings of my life.

It is thanksgiving week, so I thought I would blog in the form of giving thanks for the blessings in my life. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the stresses of everyday life. This is a great way to re-focus my attention on the good things in life.

Today I'm thankful for time spent with my husband celebrating the season. Eric and I are approaching our two year anniversary and our list of "firsts" as a couple is quickly diminishing. This year, however, we carved pumpkins together for the first time! We picked out the pumpkins weeks before Halloween at Wilson's, a local garden center.

The Pumpkins:

Between the time we bought the pumpkins and Halloween, we accumulated three pumpkin-carving tool sets. Every time we saw a set it had a different tool that we thought we just HAD to have. As it turns out, we used every single tool!

The Tools:

Although we had a great time picking out the pumpkins and finding new pumpkin-carving tools, the best part was actually carving the pumpkins! Eric and I each picked one pumpkin and one stencil and went to work. My favorite part is cleaning out the seeds!

The Carving:

Nothing beats the satisfaction of two great pumpkins sitting on your front porch as the trick-or-treaters come for candy!

The Results:

TGIF

Happy Halloween!

I hope you had a very happy Halloween! Eric and I carved pumpkins Friday night and then went to my parent's home to take care of my mom and give out candy to the trick-or-treaters! We dressed the dogs up as Frankenstein and a pumpkin. They were too cute for words. We were even allowed to take Truman (my mom's cavashon) to my mom's hospital room! She loved it.

Graduates Unite!

The graduate students in the TAM department got together for a Fall Social in order to get away from school, grading, homework, and stress. We met at Jaime's house and we each brought a dish to share. I brought potato casserole, which seemed to be a hit, but my favorite was the homemade caramel apples! YUM! There was also Indian and Chinese food brought by our international students. We had a great variety of food. We talked, socialized, and played Wii. It was a fun and relaxing evening. I can't wait for another one!

The September Issue

I went to see "The September Issue" a few days ago and I loved it. You should see it too! It is about the editor of Vogue, a sort of real-life "The Devil Wears Prada" story.