You might notice in looking at this picture that we are missing our lead Mansfield Thiot. He was on the staircase taking our Thanksgiving Feast photo. Little Miss Harper's chair is empty, because she is on her Grammy's lap where I love her to be. Thank you Ricky for taking this picture. Now if you could photoshop yourself into your chair. This is going to be a very wonderful week for our Mansfield Thiots. Let me tell you why. Ricky and Becky will have been married for 10 wonderful years on December 16 and have been planning for the past year to take an adventure. They are heading to Aruba on Tuesday morning. Nana Diane flew in yesterday on a great big United Jet and what a house filled with excited little ladies there was waiting her arrival. It's going to be FUN, FUN, FUN in Mansfield for the next week and a half. Have a wonderful trip R&B. Don't forget the sunscreen!!!
We certainly missed Miss Tatia and her famous Apple Pie this Thanksgiving. Actually we missed each one of our Charlottesville Granges. They have had a fun week celebrating their first snow fall of the winter and preparing for their very own Thanksgiving Three. Yes, you heard me right, they celebrated 3 times with 3 different feast groups. Miss Penny made the Pumpkin Pie and we think that may become a tradition, Penny's Pumpkin Pie. I am hoping that Max made the Mashed Potatoes. The Third Feast came on Saturday and had another tradition that this is the second year for and that is traveling to Richmond, to Jake's cousin's home and making Gingerbread houses after the feast. Talk about a fun tradition. It takes a mighty organized hostess to pull that off. It won't be happening here any time soon. he he he.
Our Carmichael Thiots
Charlie's family kept busy this week. I was trying to get some information from Charlie and so I tried calling him on his cell phone, I tried e-mailing him and then lastly, I tried texting him. When I did hear back in a few minutes, I'm not sure if he was irritated, or proud of all the modern technology I employed trying to find him. You can't hide from Mama Thiot that is for sure. I'll find you some how. Mackenzie's parents hosted Thanksgiving at their home and Mackenzie used her magical cooking skills to make everything look and taste wonderful. What fun memories, I loved the pictures of Keelie and Callum putting on their Christmas PJ's they received to wear as they dream about Christmas 2014!
I am very happy to report that the LA Thiots are back home after a perfectly wonderful Thanksgiving Week of enjoying the beauties of California. It turns out that Adelaide is a wonderful camping girl and loved getting to sleep in a tent and then wasn't too disappointed when the last two days were in a beach house. Yes right on the beach. Adelaide was certainly born in the right state. She is a California girl in every way. She loves sand, surf, and sunshine. I absolutely LOVED the few mornings that Pierce Facetimed me and let me share their adventurous week with them. I'm glad you are home and I'm glad you had a good time.
Can I tell you how wonderful it is to have our Dallas Thiots 30 minutes away from us? It's the best. The little girls were sooooooooooo thrilled to have them at the Feast this year and our sweet Brooklyn designed and made Thankful Cards for many of our guests. She must have spent hours getting them just right. Even Rocky the Dog received one with a special doggy treat taped to the inside. Sky and Kara, with your hands so full of your take home doggy bag, you left your cards here, don't worry, I've put them in a safe place for you to take home on your next visit which I hope is soon. Kara brought stuffing and mint pie to the Thanksgiving feast that we hope becomes a family tradition.
We Plano Thiots
This week started out very hard. My sister Lani's little dog Simon who she adores, passed away. Everyone is our family loves her Simon and it's been very very hard to have to say goodbye to him. It's a strange thing how attached we become to pets. I know they aren't people, but there is definitely loving spirit inside of them which makes it painful when they leave. Lani has taken such good care of Simon and I think my little brother said it best when he said that Simon couldn't have had a better life or been loved more by anyone else. He was a lucky little dog and we will all miss him. We've all been hunting through our pictures we have of him and have found some treasures. I love you Lani and I'm so sorry for your loss. Thankfully, it's been a very busy week and keeping busy helps heal our wounds.
Wednesday morning I met our sweet Becky at the Bass Pro Shop in Grapevine and picked up THREE little Thiot Girls. Can you believe she let me have Harper too? Grammy camp was on it's way. We loaded up and we always say, "All Set?" then I wait for the reply from the back seat, "YOU BET!!!" That means everyone is seat belted and ready to roll. When we bought my Tahoe five years ago, it had a built in dvd player. I knew I could be the funnest Grammy in town if I had movies on board. Well it wasn't too long before it quit working. Ugggg. I was disappointed and the girls always mentioned it when they were in my car. I never knew where to take it to have it repaired or see if it could be fixed. Dick found a spot that put tinting on his windows of his new car and I took it there a few weeks ago. A nice man named Todd climbed into my back seat and started fiddling with it. He asked for the remote, checked the batteries and said, "your batteries are corroded." Those might be the happiest words I have heard in a while. He went back inside and replaced the batteries and came back out and in just a few minutes had things working. I nearly hugged Todd when I asked for the bill and he said, "It's on me, Have a great afternoon!" So with the movie Planes playing on the DVD, we headed to Frisco where we met up with Kinsley Kate and her mom and brothers at McDonalds. After a yummy lunch and some time on a very fun playground we headed to the Hobby Lobby where the girls got to choose fabric to make new dancing skirts. We had made dancing skirts 3 years ago and guess, what, they still love those, but they are getting short. So Kinsley chose hot pink, Brooklyn choose icie blue, Addison choose a royal violet and Harper picked a sweet pink. Oh my, we borrowed the fabric ladies tape measurer and measured for length and said a silent prayer as I put my deliquent math skills to work and figured out yardage. Then came home, put Miss Harper down for a nap, put on Beauty and the Beast to watch while we got started. Each little girl had to sew their own while sitting on Grammy's lap. I often wonder if helpers speed up the process or slow it down. I think you know the answer, but it was so fun. We talked about serger sewing machines and how some folks call them Baby Locks. I call mine Ellie because she is an Elna sewing Machine and she came to me in a very magical way. She was delivered to my front porch one day without a note and the only way I knew who loved me and sent her to me was that she had a tiny plate on her that read Dave's Bernina. My sweet uncle David had received her on a trade in and mailed her to me. I love her and have sewn many fun things on her for many years, but sewing circle skirts with Granddaughters is a favorite. Thank you Uncle David! The skirts were a hit and the dancing and spinning was a success! We were sure to be ready for the dance that would follow our Thanksgiving Feast this year.
We were also assigned to make the place cards for the Thanksgiving table so we made teepees with everyone's name on them. Super Cute. Addison had a homework project for school where she had to decorate a Ginger Bread Girl who would hang on the wall of her kindergarten class room. We simply could not resist having all of us make one too. So I found some brown gingerbread looking paper and cut out 3 more. We made circle skirts for our cookie girls out of the scraps from the girls. We even had Miss Penny on face time creating one. We were wishing that California time wasn't two hours earlier or we would have had Keelie and Adelaide too. Next time girls.
We packed lots of fun into our 30 hours of Grammy Camp. I think it was extra fun to have our little Harper with us this time. You are supposed to be on the "Potty Train" to come, but she just couldn't wait.
What sweet little "Helpers" they were to get ready for our Thanksgiving Feast. I couldn't have done it without them or without Graypa who was a lovely assistant as well. Whew, I'm sure you are as tired of reading about Grammy Camp as I was of hosting it. Have a wonderful week ya'll. December is tomorrow and I can hardly wait! SLY Robynn
