Thankful Tree and Other Fall Stuff

   We love Fall at our house. I have to admit I go waaaay overboard having grown up on the coast of Northern California where the weather is the same 365 days a year.  When we still lived there I had to create the seasons inside and outside our home with decorations. You'd think I would have let up a bit once we moved to beautiful Washington State where there are definitely 4 seasons but I just couldn't let it go. I think I need therapy.

   I have passed my weirdness down to my children who on August 31st asked if they could get the Fall boxes down from the barn attic. It didn't take me long to cheerfully say,"Okay go git 'em!!"  So, on September 1st the festivities began. The mantle is always first then the kitchen with our wonderful pumpkin bowls I got at Michael's for a nifty $1.00 each!  They are so, so cute. There's the oh-so-orange pumpkin cookie jar and the orange cereal bowls too. I then hang my fall themed towels on the stove, put the runner I made down the length of the dining table, which at our house is no small length.  Next is the kitchen window sill. Amongst the various things that sit there there are two Fall miniature bread crocks always filled with that NASTY Brachs candy corn and Fall mix.  I'm sorry, but that stuff is just plain wax. Wax I tell you, and my family loves it. Especially the husband. This is his big treat of the year :)  There is much more decorating but we don't want pages and pages of this right?

  Outside we go berserk and have wreaths, a gazillion pumpkins that have to be just the right shapes; tall and skinny, flat and squatty, perfectly round, the triangle, the lumpy one and on and on. The gold, rust, burgundy and yellow chrysanthemums, and those cute little gourds and pumpkins sit all over the front walkway and flower beds. And cornstalks...oh the cornstalks...I love them. Gosh, I just LOVE Fall, did I mention that?

  Come October we add some Halloween decorations and of course costumes and Trick-or-Treating! This year we had a duplo, a baseball player and a Pez dispenser! Pretty ingenious eh? The boys made their costumes from scratch and they were awesome. It's so funny to me to only have 3 that Trick-or-Treat. It wasn't long ago that getting 8 kids ready was an all afternoon event. Anyway, the boys made a haul in our neighborhood plus their Nonni always sends more candy money.....oh boy!

   On Nov. 1st, All Saints Day if you're Catholic, we start putting together the Thankful Tree.  I cannot remember where I first saw it or how many years we've been doing it but it's such a great tradition.  It is branches with home made leaves hanging from them. Each leaf has what everyone in the family is thankful for written on them. The kids think of some of the funniest things. The one I always remember is "That my Dad is a pushover".  My husband is always mistakenly thought of as "scary" when folks meet him. Why I do not know. Perhaps it's his size...he's well over 6 feet and very broad shouldered. In other words BIG (but not fat) which is one of things I love about him. He's big and safe and won't let anything happen to me or our family. After folks talk to him a bit they realize he's a big Teddy Bear and his family can get him to do anything. Hence "pushover".  He has a lot of bark and no bite whatsoever.  Ooops...I got off topic talking about that nice husband person!

   Okay the tree. I got one of those Dollar Tree clear vases that has a bottom heavy base. I also got 2 bags of those nice little glass or real rocks.  For branches, look in your yard, take a walk and find some interesting looking ones or if you're looking for a high end look, Michael's or any craft store has all kinds of branches to buy.  Snuggle as many as you think look good down into your vase filled with rocks.  Make sure the branches you get have little tiny arms coming out from the main stem so you have lots of places to hang the leaves.  Next, cut out of construction paper, yellow, red, orange and brown leaves large enough to write on.  Now punch holes in them at one end and tie a circle of gold or brown yarn. I leave a bit of tail on the ties as they look woodsy.

   I put a pretty bowl of blank leaves on the dining table next to the tree and a pen.  We invite guests to add to it too. On Thanksgiving everyone reads them, even though everyone checks them everyday to see who wrote what!  Find variations of your own but MAKE ONE, you'll love it and it makes Thanksgiving very special.  It's also a lovely and easy gift to give. Buy the few things needed, do all the cutting and tying, get the branches in the vase and give it to a family to get started. Voila!

     In this photo we didn't have the gold or brown yarn so a light yellow was used...yuk.

     The other great happenings are the 2 birthdays we have in October. On mine we go to our friend's farm, Schilter Family Farm (www.schilterfamilyfarm.com) and pick pumpkins, go on a hay ride and do all those fun Fall things that make memories. I take a ton of pictures and the kids get very tired of me and my camera.  The next birthday is our son and he has always wanted the same cake; a Great Pumpkin cake. It's cute and easy.

 

     Please pretend you don't see the pink candles for this boy's cake. Sometimes things just don't go right you know?  The characters are colored and cut out of a coloring book and laminated. Then we tape a Popsicle stick on the back and plop them into the cake. We've had these same ones for many years and just wipe them off  and pull off the sticks. The pumpkins are of course the Brach's Fall Mix or plain pumpkins. Some years I pipe green vines around the patch but I must have been rushed this year.

   That is my Fall blog for this year. Traditions, traditions, traditions. Hey isn't that from Fiddler on the Roof?