Grateful!

Okay.
Total whirlwind November.
Started off with a little bit of a bang, I was thrilled to learn that two of my albums had been put in the Junkitz back to the books albums contest final 35.

Vancouver...
Wow, totally crazy. Worked hard, played hard, laughed hard!
yeah, yeah, yeah.
Christina and Terry were the best. I came back home with a beautiful new toque (green and pink!) a pile of amazing new stamps that are recent additions! I got to go sit in Terry's seat for a hockey game that was a blast, Terry made me his wonderful chocolate chai loaf (twice!) and then they sent some toffee home for the kids that was terrific!
Am I a lucky girl or what!
So after Vancouver I had a few days to recuperate, play some tennis and find out that I got moved to a 4.0 rating, woooohooo! That is so great, I have had this as a goal for sometime and it has taken some hard work and tough matches to get there!
yay me.
I also came home to my Jenni Bowlin kit. Dave wonder why I subscribe, almost every month I have already previously bought or aquired through hook and crook what she has in her kit. He wonders why I haven't started my own kit club...
Duh, way tooo much work!
I so love her kits and her little extras that I can't get my hands on are what makes it all worth while! So her project this month was adorable, and I am just not that creative or willing to think of so much fabulousness all the time!
Jenni has the best brain to pick for projects!
I had a great time putting together her grateful centerpiece and my 15 year old took the pics for it...
she really surprised me with her thoughtfulness and gratitude. She took pictures of our pantry with the food in it, the sink and toilet, the dishwasher, microwave and oven, fridge etc. Wow, it really touched me how she really gets what matters and how lucky we are to have those things!
Dave surprised me after much HINTING with Bare Naked Ladies tickets. Great concert.
I love this band, my kids love this band. The story is that we had tickets for all of us two and a half years ago. Then I had to have knee surgery, tickets were 3 days after the knife. Yeah, didn't get to go. They had a great time and brought me a t-shirt, thanks. I was on drugs hooked up to the go to guy at the time, Ice Man. A must have by the way if you are condsidering doing the knee surgery thing.
So, if he hadn't got these tickets, I might have had to call an attorney.
We had a wonderful time, BNL was all that!
Then Thanksgiving was upon us, and I am a serious control freak with this.
I must cook.
The turkey is brined for 12 hours, the jams made, the pies and rolls baked, the sweet potatoes and stuffing prepared. There is a level of perfection that I expect from myself, and it can be a little intense to be around me when I am in the zone.
That being said, four botched batches of rolls later, I did have to let that go, they were not great and the kids ate them anyway! I was so grateful to have my family together, (Roxanne and her family were missed!) We had a day that I will never forget. If it is what heaven is like, sign me up! The kids (all 8) didn't bicker and played and enjoyed each others company all day. The strain between Dave and my parents was not there. Rick and Briana were delightful! We ate, visited and had a perfect day in spite of my lack luster rolls! I can't imagine a more perfect day.
Saturday was a private class with a group of great gals at Memory Preserve. I had spent two months organzing and driving everyone to drink with my e-mails. The darling and amazing Teresa Collins taught a beautiful christmas album that is 40 pages of wow! The company was fun, the class inspirational and oh yeah, I won a grand prize drawing of some incredible Junkitz goodies! Thanks Teresa for dealing with me and thanks to all the girls who made it worth it!
So today, I got all of my christmas cards made and got to play some tennis, a really good day!
I also some how have had time to get some scrapping done and have really been loving doing digi work as well...


so much I want to do and just not enough time in the day.
Thanks to all the people who keep encouraging me to blog and who actually care, means so much! And you know who you are duuuude!
B-