Bidding a Fond Farewell to Fall....

We had a great Thanksgiving. I had most of the family in NYS, so that in itself was a coup!

And we had two days of celebrations! PARTY!!!!! The first day was at our house, welcoming our oldest daughter and her crew to WNY Thanksgiving for the first time in a lot of years... a decade, maybe? Anyway, it was great fun and we got to do this:

For years I've wanted to do a Living Nativity with my own grandkids. I've done several with my wonderful daycare families, but never had all my grandkids together when it wasn't 90+ degrees... so this time daughter Beth and I planned it all out... got out bins of the old costumes and found some new parts at the Salvation Army Thrift Store and put together the look... and an outdoor venue, using our fall photo prop background, but stripped of it's cute stuff. It gave us a nice, stark venue.

And then a storm moved in. Wind. Pouring rain. Then more wind. That meant we weren't doing an outside venue, so we scrambled... on Thanksgiving morning... to put up old fencing and hay bales and draped burlap because our garage isn't conducive to quick change.... it's more like a storage facility all winter long, for all the farm stuff because we don't have a barn. You get the picture!

But in the end, despite the scramble, it came out wonderfully well! And the parents, who may have doubted my sanity, are really happy with it! :) So all's well that ends well or "Ende gut, alles gut".

Farmer Dave's German grandmother used to say that.

And here are some more fun remembrances from this past month at the Herne/Blodgett house!

Loading the porch with firewood....

Preschool with Lena... making a fall collage in waxed paper

Our Halloween night! Warmer than usual, about 60 degrees and pouring rain! But fun! We made memories that night for sure!

Cookies by kids.... for kids! They were really into the spirit! :)

And now we end fall looking forward. This beautiful story releases in two weeks, on shelves nationwide or you can PREORDER IT BY CLICKING THIS LINK.

 

 

And Mary and Joseph's trek to Bethlehem begins a new liturgical year with the season of Advent, a beautiful time of reflection, prayer and anticipation because who doesn't get a little giddy when a baby is due? For unto us a child is born! Mary and Joseph and the donkey (who may or may not have existed, but was commonplace then) are making their way around the dining room. On Christmas Eve they'll arrive at the inn, where they'll be rebuffed but offered a place to stay in a place where animals slept... And so it begins.

 

 

And now I'm wishing you the peace, hope, faith and joy of a blessed Advent season! There's a new Christmas cookie recipe coming next week "Christmas Crinkles", and we'll watch Mary and Joseph continue their journey... and we'll pray for one another because that's the very best thing friends can do, isn't it? God bless you and yours!

Multipublished inspirational author Ruth Logan Herne loves writing stories, and if she didn't have a gazillion kids and grandkids and half-a-zillion animals, why she'd tuck herself right into a writing cave i.e.: Emily Dickinson and hide from the world, but seeing as how that's not the case, she does a lot of smiling and nodding and funny projects that it seems like a really cool mom and grandma ought to do... and then writes her stories in the middle of the night. And that seems to work! Find her on facebook, stop by Ruthy's website ruthloganherne.com or email her at loganherne@gmail.com. She'd love to hear from you!