Thanksgiving 2016

We started out our Thanksgiving season with a Thankful Board. You can get the printable {HERE} Every day during the month of November we wrote something we were thankful for.  I really would like to extend this throughout the year instead of just November.  It's a nice reminder of why we should be thankful everyday.

We made our very favorite pumpkin cookies.  Honestly, they are amazing.  I usually only make one batch of these a year because they are very  "sinful", but this year I made two batches and  took some to a party.  I kept getting requests for the recipe.  I tried to find it online again, but cannot find the original.  I even have the website I got it from, but it wasn't on there anymore.  I decided to type it up so I don't ever lose it.  Here is the recipe.  Try it next year!!  They are amazing.

The Best Pumpkin Cookies

Makes: about 5 dozen

Ingredients:

·         2 cups sugar

·         2 cups shortening

·         2 cups pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling

·         2 eggs

·         2 tsp. vanilla

·         5 cups flour

·         4 tsp. baking powder

·         1 tsp. salt

·         2 tsp. cinnamon

·         2 tsp. baking soda

·         2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice ( if you don’t have just add some ginger & allspice.)

·         2 tsp. nutmeg

·         3/4 tsp. cloves

Directions:

·         Preheat oven to to 350 F

·         Mix shortening and sugar until blended

·         Add pumpkin

·         Add one egg at a time, mix

·         Add vanilla

·         In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients

·         Add to wet ingredients

·         Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

·         4 ½ cups powdered sugar

·         1 stick butter (1/2 cup)

·         1 tsp. vanilla

·         ¼ half & half (I have used milk or whipping cream)

·         Add a little orange food coloring for festive touch.  

 

We learned what life would have been like for Native American children.  This is a great book to give you a peek at their daily lives.  We made dream catchers after this story.  Two of my boys were sure that their dream catchers were really working.  Dreamcatchers {HERE}

We read our very favorite Thanksgiving book.  If you are a Five in a Row fan , I am sure you hold Cranberry Thanksgiving in a special spot in your heart.  We read this every year.

Our seasons are opposite of the United States.  Usually, we would have a pumpkin and apple pie for Thanksgiving.  This year we made a strawberry pie and the boys made it, crust and all, by themselves.

I learned that I never want my kids to cook a turkey for me.   Printable {HERE}

Some of our art work.  They learned about the Mayflower and drew the ship. Directions {HERE}

They drew turkeys. {HERE}

 The boys added thankful leaves to their Thankful tree each day. 

A couple more books we read to get us prepared for Thanksgiving. 

While we lived in Thailand we always celebrated Thanksgiving on the following Saturday because Ben always had to work on that Thursday.  I was planning on doing the same thing here, but found out  a couple of days before that Ben actually got half a day off on Thanksgiving!!  That was pretty exciting for us.  We started off our morning watching the Macy's Day Parade from 2015.  Always a year behind.  

We finished off our Thanksgiving day decorating for Christmas.  It was a wonderful day of food and family.  

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us!

Pinterest Thanksgiving Boards
-Thanksgiving
-Cranberry Thanksgiving

Past Thanksgivings and Ideas
-Thanksgiving 2011
-Thanksgiving 2013
-Thanksgiving 2015

Halloween 2016- First Holiday in Chile

 Halloween 2016

We love Halloween in this house.  Check out Halloween 2011, Halloween 2014, & Halloween 2015! This year we had another first for the boys.  You cannot find find big, orange pumpkins in Thailand. Well, you can, but they will be 3,000 Baht or $100 for one.  We never splurged on one, so we came up with other things to carve or paint.  One year I found little orange pumpkins and the kids painted those.  Another year we just decorated Thai pumpkins.  Last year we carved watermelon.  But this year, we found out that Chile does get orange pumpkins and they are affordable!!  Britton had never even seen a large orange pumpkin before and was very excited to carve his own pumpkin. 

 Not quite sure about the "guts' of the pumpkin.  It took a while before they actually started clearing the insides out.

Britton made a Lego face pumpkin. 

 Lincoln made a Jack Skellington pumpkin. 

Greyson made a Batman pumpkin. 

Halloween morning started out with orange pancakes with chocolate syrup spiderwebs. 

 Time to dress up and play games.  Britton wanted to dress like his dad for Halloween.  Greyson was TapeFace and Lincoln was Slappy from the R.L. Stine books.

 Next, they played Ghost bowling. 

 We played Halloween Bingo. 

And they went on a scavenger hunt for a bag of candy.

Snack time was hot chocolate and donuts. 

Halloween Lunch

We had no idea that Chileans actually celebrate Halloween.  We didn't find out that kids go Trick-or-Treating until an hour or so before it started.  The boys were so excited.  They finally got to really Trick-or-Treat.  In Thailand, a few expat families would pass out candy, but this was the first year the boys got to walk around a whole neighborhood.  They loved it.

And then back home to finger hot dogs, deviled eggs, spider web dip, and monster cupcakes for dinner.

We had a fantastic time celebrating our first Halloween in Chile. It was even more special because Ben had the day off from work and was able to celebrate all day with us.  

Here is my Pinterest Page with all of the ideas I used.

6 Month Update: Things Are Looking Up

It has been a long time since I last posted, but there is good reason.  I just couldn't find anything to post about.  Sure, we were doing things and celebrating holidays, but I was depressed.  I didn't want to get off of the couch, leave the house, or really see anyone.  This is not where I wanted to be.  Here is an unpublished post I wrote back at our 3 month mark.

Oh friends, I must sound like a complete basket case.  I am on an emotional roller coaster.  I go from fine to grumpy in a matter of minutes.  I know we chose this lifestyle, but it doesn't make the move any easier, even if I knew what to expect.

We have been living in Chile for 3 months now and to be honest not much has changed since we first got here.  I still don't drive.  I have an irrational fear of driving in another country.  This makes it difficult for me and the boys because we are stuck at home everyday.  I still don't know too many people.  This is mostly my fault as I'm not really putting myself out there. The boys don't really have any friends.  Again, this is my fault as I should be working harder to find connections for them.  I am still grieving for my life in Thailand and hoping the pain of leaving there will start to lessen. I'm realizing I'm  now 5 years removed from the life I had in the United States and that makes it difficult for me to feel like I fit in there. So talking to anyone from back home about my feelings is really out of the question.  It's all confusing and frustrating.

Things that have changed in the past 3 months:

Our house is feeling more like a home.  I will have to post photos of our house once I actually have it picked up and presentable.  I really like our house and I love the views from every window of our house.  We have made our first connection with a few homeschoolers in the area.  There are not many older homeschooling kids in Santiago, so we are just hoping to find a few great families around the boy's ages.  It's warming up, so we are able to be outside and enjoy our beautiful back patio.  The boys have even had school outside a couples days this week.  I can order my groceries and have them delivered, which has been a huge time saver and really just makes us all happier. We visited the weekend market to get our produce and really liked it.  I finally have a phone number!  We had our security system installed.  I can leave my back door open (we don't have screens) and the dog doesn't come running in.

So, while it feels like we are all sitting in limbo, hoping to have a happier life, I guess when I see the changes on paper I realize that it will just take time.  Things are changing, just not as quickly as I would like them to.  We will find our happy place.  I'm hoping we find our happy place this weekend on our first trip to the beach.  We need a change of scenery and need to start exploring our new home. I think that will help us feel a little more at peace and not feel so stir crazy.  Hopefully, next week I will have a whole new happy post about the beach.

Thank you to my friends and family all over the world, who support us and continue to send love our way.  As I have said before, you really are the best!

Well, we never made it on that beach trip due to sick kids and I kept on hating it here until just a few weeks ago.  We had friends come and spend a week with us over Christmas and it was so good for all of us.  Being good hosts, we had to get out of the house and show them around Santiago and other parts of Chile.  And while we were showing them Chile, we started to see what this country has to offer.

After they left, the older two boy went to summer camp for a week and started making friends. Happiness has started so seep back into our lives and we are getting out of the funk we had been living in for the past 6 months.  I plan to start sharing what our first three holidays were like in Chile and also some of the great places we have been visiting.  I am already planning our trip for next summer!  This country really is beautiful.  While we still have a long way to go, I am glad we can finally say some positive things about Chile.

(Oh, and I still don't drive!!)