Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving ... where to begin.  I guess, for the most part, it was a great week that I was able to spend home with family and away from school and work, and I had a really nice time.  ... one minor setback to the week?  My car died.  R.I.P. Red Ford Taurus 1999-2009.  I'll try and make a long story short... I was driving back home that tuesday and almost got home until I hit downtown Dallas, and in the middle of the freeway, my car stalled and started smoking.  After an agonizing ten minutes of coaxing the haywire car onto the side of the road (oh, and it was the left side too, since on my right was an uphill exit ramp), and then another two hours wait for roadside assistance, my mom and a tow truck to come, finally I made it home.  We sent my car to the nearest dealership, and the next morning recieved the verdict ... the transmission completely died.  It would have cost over three thousand dollars to replace and fix it.  Plus, they couldn't tell if anything else was broken because they couldn't turn on the car.  So after a lot of thought (a good fifteen minutes, perhaps), my car was deemed not worth it to fix and was donated to the Salvation Army (or some other car donation site), and then I became carless.  I guess I never realized how dependent I am on having a car, or just being able to go somewhere myself without giving rides.  but, for the time being, I'm back to being fifteen years old again with no mode of transportation other than the school bus or my bicycle. *sigh*.

Anyway, aside from that sad misfortune and the sudden blow it dealt, the rest of the week really was a nice break.  ... granted, I had to stay home the whole time, but I probably would have anyway.

... preparing dinner.

the lovely feast

the best part ... leftovers! :D

Of course, another tradition in our family that goes hand in hand with Thanksgiving - decorating the house for Christmas!

... and this year we have new deluxe ornaments - real glass (yes, I already broke one) in dark red and gold with glittery spirals... so pretty, kinda messy (I probably still have glitter on my clothes) but really elegant.

... matches our nativity set we got a couple years ago.

Since I had a lot of free time on my hands, I took on a new project to make a set of hand puppets as a Christmas present to my nephews.  I made them from pretty much just felt with a little bit of yarn for some of the hair and some buttons and an argyle sock to make a sweater and lots of glue and thread.  It took some time but it was so much fun, and I hope they enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.

... here are the final products!

a mom and a dad (modeled after Amanda and Katsu)

a boy and a baby and a finger puppet cat (modeled after Andrew, Seth, and Joe)

a grandma and a grandpa (generic, not modeled after my parents, haha)

and three friends (the boy is sorta like a friend of Andrews, but after making those, I thought the set could use more girls, so I just made a couple of generic girls, plus that way I got to play with different colors and styles of hair).