Thanksgiving Week

I’m just getting caught up with life around here after the rush and preparation of the Thanksgiving celebration.

For some reason, our local library thought that two days before Thanksgiving was a good time to schedule their children’s craft fair. It ended up working out okay, but a week other than Thanksgiving would have been preferable. Maddy really got a chance to spread her entrepreneurial wings with this craft fair. It was the first that our library has done and the last year that she will be able to participate due to her age. She signed up at the beginning of November on the last day of sign-up, so she had a bit of a late start and was feverishly working on crocheting 100% cotton washcloths, two small purses, making God’s eye ornaments and learning how to make lip balm and then making 25 tubes of it and finally hand milling a couple bars of my honey spice cake soap and molding them into cute snowmen shapes. She made three bath packages that had a washcloth, lip balm and a couple soap in a gift bag and the rest of the items were sold individually.

Here is where the picture of her at her table would have gone if I hadn’t accidentally reformatted my camera’s memory stick on Thanksgiving.

The room chosen for the craft fair was too small, the tables were too close and people were cramped and squeezing past each other to get to the next table, however, there was a good attendance and it was great to see the community out supporting children’s talents. There was a diverse group of items from original comic books to coloring books based on original art, origami frogs, hand drawn and penciled greeting cards, woven and stitched purses, candles, jewelry and dog treats and people treats. Maddy ended up selling nearly all of her items and making a bit over $70 in sales, so for a 12 year old girl that was a successful evening.

I’m proud of her for deciding, after counting her takings, to put $50 into her savings account straight away. She and a friend have been telling us for several months that they are going to save up their money to buy a farm together and start a CSA. When they’ve had enough success they will build two houses so they can each have their own. Ambitious to be sure, but a great goal, I think.

Our Thanksgiving day was really great. I finally got all my dishes prepared, we got the girls bathed and dressed and bags of necessities together and headed out to our friends’ farm. We chatted and imbibed while the turkey and other dishes finished cooking and baking. Some visited the pigs that will soon grace our table and we stared out the living room windows over the flood plain and watched fog descend and huge flocks of starlings swirl overhead. The children played, colored, pounded on musical instruments, and screamed Christmas carols to us. The adults talked farming, chickens, politics, community, food and relished spending time with each other. We also played a board game.

The food was delicious and the majority of the ingredients were grown by local farmers, our friends included. It was beautiful to prepare, admire and consume so much local bounty.

After about nine hours of camaraderie, we finally wrangled the girls into their pj’s gathered our things, searched for missing children’s clothing and shoes and finally headed home into the fog on a dark, country road.

I hope all of you had as perfect a Thanksgiving as we did.