South Carolina Thanksgiving

Not a cloud in the sky.

So grateful for the Hoyt’s hosting us as they also had guests from New Jersey.

Stewart was at Noelle’s, and Nan was in Webster.

2021 Family Portraits

It’s been way too long since we could do this.

So grateful we were able to do it today.

AHG Operation Christmas Child box packing…

While Tab and I were at CCHA, Dad and the others got to go to AHG for the pot luck and box packing.

CCHA Fall Project Night

Wouldn’t you know, our American Heritage Girls Operation Christmas Child box backing party AND Tab’s CCHA Fall Project Night fell on the same date. 

Daddy went with the other girls and I went with Tab.

Tab’s drama class shared a short play about the Ballerina of Auschwitz.

She now has a 6 week break from co-op!

Post-CBS lunch

We meant to do it two weeks ago.
Then last week.
But stuff kept coming up.
So today, after CBS we met Daddy at a diner in Greenwood and had the best cheeseburger in my memory

HANNY, AHG, FESTIVAL OF TREES

The Festival of Trees is a thing in three hotels in downtown Greenville.
Organizations sponsor a tree.
Volunteers/group decorate a tree.

One of Johanna’s AHG peers is working on a level badge that required her to organize a community service project, so Darby and her mom worked out a way for girls to make decorations, and then the unit met downtown to decorate Darby’s assigned tree.

All Darby’s decorations had a woodland theme.

Afterward we went to Kilwin’s for the most expensive, but very delicious, ice cream.

The table will last a little longer.

We suddenly realized the table had gimungo cracks throughout one of the pedestals.  THREE of them.  HUGE. 

A trip to the unfinished furniture store convinced me quickly that was not a project I wanted to take on right now. 

Thankfully, we think John’s glue and bands will buy us more time. 

Katriel’s bicycling badge

She had her new bike a whopping three days and it was time to go to the park with her unit to work on a cycling badge.  

It was her first time cycling any actual distance.  And she was wobbly.  And she had to take breaks.  And she fell.  And she started over.  She would give herself sweet pep talks and turn any negative things she was about to say about her abilities into a positive thing. 

And I love her.

After they did all the piece of the badge (making a map, talking about the parts of a bike) they got to take a train ride.

AHG is a blessing we really really needed. 

Warm and Wonderful Wednesday? (Katriel would say so.)

The cold snap from last week is gone, and 3/4 of the big “kids” tossed the football a little while.

Wednesdays are on the busy side, so it was nice they got out for a while.

After AWANA and youth group, John and I took Johanna and Tabitha home and took Katriel on a clandestine trip to Walmart.  She didn’t know what was up. 

Even as we got to the bicycle aisle, she was just enjoying looking at them and talking about them.  It was clear she had not figured out what was going on.  I gently said, “Katriel, we brought you here so you could get a new bike.”

She developed a happy, yet shy, smile as she absorbed that.  She was clearly touched and immediately suggested any one would be fine.  We identified that the one she had recently been standing closest to was, in fact, one she liked a lot, and she was careful about trying it out to make sure we were all sure about it.

John and I began to discuss the helmet situation at home.  Here she perked right up.  She was able to describe all the helmets we had, and I knew that the one she’d been wearing most often was from when Nigel was about 8.

So she picked out a helmet to.  She knew exactly what she was looking for. 

Not too many Butlers have gotten brand new bike.  Truth be told, we’ve barely been bike riders up until now.

**The next day – she named the bike… Monica.  ♥