Looking Ahead To Thanksgiving

At work on Wednesday we're having a pot luck Thanksgiving Feast. I volunteered to bring a roast turkey since I'm cooking turkey for Thanksgiving when Ben's family is over and I figured I needed a test run. Thinking about turkey got me remembering how my mother always had the Macy's parade on the TV on Thanksgiving mornings as a background for all the cooking she was doing in the kitchen. So I was excited to find Melissa Sweet's new book, Balloons over Broadway; the True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade, at Barnes and Noble's this weekend, and read it to my Kindergarten and preschool classes today. What a fun retelling of how puppeteer Tony Sarg created the huge helium-filled balloon puppets which made Macy's parade such a hit.

After reading this story I'm all set to watch the parade this year.


Later I found that Ms. Sweet has a nifty activity kit related to the book on her web site.

We've had gorgeous weather here the past few days; warm and not humid, perfect for a walk in the park or raking leaves or cleaning up the garden, which is what I did this afternoon after school. Among the frost-withered tomato vines I found carrots, onions, and Swiss chard, still growing nicely.

I was soon spotted by Fetcher, who came around to prowl the garden and beg to be petted.



If you don't pet him soon enough, or as long as he wants, things can get ugly. This photo was taken about one second before those big sharp claws dug into my legs!

The Halloween decorations are gone from outside the house and we have a clean slate from now until the first of December, when we decorate for Christmas.

Veterans' Day is nestled between all these holidays. I was quite moved by this post over at Clover Lane.