And the year goes round again ...

Getting the Christmas tree!


Mark stayed warm and cozy at home on the couch. Grandma had suggested a fake tree this year but the girls protested and insisted on cutting their own. So Cailley drove us a few miles to the local tree farm.


Hot mulled cider was delicious!


Townsend tree lighting on the common! Isabelle was there early singing with the girl scouts.


and then there was light!


Guess who ... pays a visit on the town fire truck?


... Santa of course hands out candy canes!


Warm hobo stew after the choir concert at one of the local churches on the town common.


Mid-December finds us enjoying the girls recitals and concerts. Isabelle played second chair in her orchestra and enjoyed dressing up for the concert.







Postcards of Christmas!







Our Christmas card for this year. Each girl made their own snow globe.






The Christmas table ...


Santa pays a visit ...


Singing Christmas carols after dinner ...


Our very own "Elf on the shelf" arrived late in the season and will stay until New Year's Eve!

November days ...

Our oldest daughter turned 17 and enjoys her birthday morning breakfast in bed!



Thanksgiving dinner was a success with the help of the girls. They really helped with the cooking this year.


Mark wasn't able to enjoy any of the food though due to his radiation side effects. But we did get him to the table just to say grace and show him our table.

Halloween

I'm exhausted and sad. It's just takes so much energy to be doing EVERYTHING. And getting another cold hasn't helped much either. But mostly I'm just sad about my dear husband and his medical issues. Its difficult to get him to eat and he is loosing weight too fast. I'm so worried too. We are going into the hospital daily for radiation. I'm hoping he will get some relief soon. I just feel so angry that we waited so long to address these issues and yet I have been worried about them since the summer. Who is listening to me? Anyway I am looking into a clinical trial type option and am hoping I can get him over this last bit of radiation ok.

But life is just continuing its rushing along. Isabelle wanted a witch costume hand sewn by me so I cooperated. Her little hat came out darling. Mark wasn't able to participate in the pumpkin carving (which he usually orchestrates) but his brother Kent helped out.



Mark posed with the girls and the pumpkins a bit ...





Halloween was a zoo as always (trying to do too many things at once) but the girls had fun.


Isabelle is on the right hand side and her fried (also a witch) on the left ...

Fall

Ok so I didn't get out in the yard much this last month. But I did enjoy the fall colors each day on the drive into Boston to the hospital. I try to keep reminding myself to enjoy the beauty -- because soon I'll be looking at grey and maybe snow!


Etsy Treasuries ...

Enjoying the warm days of fall!

I've been trying to spend at least a half hour outside tending to the overgrown (yet pretty) gardens. I've got a million things to do but I NEED to get outside to relieve some of the stress and worry over my husband's health. I've started at the driveway side garden nearest the mailbox. This year it was overtaken with crabgrass. I'm transplanting a few "wild" plants that have spread around the yard and going to add some rocks to create a little shading for the plant roots.

I get side tracked though with all the other things in the yard though. The golden rod is going crazy. I love it this time of year when paired with the asters we planted for the honey bees. Our yard is never so busy with bees than at this time of year. Our own hives are still this year but there are plenty of wild honey bees to be seen.



Well who wouldn't be cheered up by a little warm sunshine on a cool fresh morning with an abundance of flowers and bees all around?

A new Etsy treasury to share made by Joanna's Photograpy ...

Happy Autumn Moon!

This Sunday we celebrated our yearly Autumn Moon Festival in our backyard with the cousins and grandma and grandpa. Isabelle insisted on tiki torches for the patio and I found a few more sets of lights to string outside as well as an abundance of candles.

The kids started the party by dressing up in their silk outfits. Then we each painted a paper lantern or banner. The kids had a lot of fun doing this yearly craft so we have quite a collection of lanterns from all the past years too.



Then they headed outside grabbing the ribbon sticks to dance about the yard. Some were rainbow colored and others handmade from ribbons. A music tape was set up in the playhouse.

We made cookies with our chinese wooden cookie molds. Since we had purchased a box of mooncakes we just made cookies with vanilla and chocolate shortbread recipes (the chocolate was awesome!).




We ordered take out from our local Panda Wok and supplimented that with steamed buns and pork shumi from a chinese grocery store in Littleton.

After dinner we made tea and served it in our tiny tea sets from China and ate our mooncakes. Then we each took a lantern and a few floating candles and walked down to the river in the darkness. We could see the moon coming up through the clouds. Our little lanterns shown just enough light to walk by. At the river we each lit a candle and sent it floating down river with a prayer and moment of silence. It was so pretty! We walked back up towards the house and restarted our bonfire and toasted marshmallows and lit sparklers.

Mark was a bit under the weather and enjoyed the day relaxing watching sports on tv with Uncle Pete. Emma took over on cooking the steamed food (Mark's job) and did an excellent job. Mark didn't make it outside to enjoy the night lights and walk under the moonlight and we missed him. But the kids were busy enough to keep Robin, Grandma, and I running around.