Adventures
- 2020 Giving Back
We decided to make Christmas cards and little gift bags for a senior center.
My little elf and I made 50 cards and gift bags. We made two different cards–one was a Christmas tree and the other was a stack of presents. I found a template online to make the Christmas tree and drew a template for the presents.
Deanna started off making the cards by drawing different holiday pictures on the front. After about 10, we realized it would take a long time to draw and color 50 different pictures. While we were picking up additional card stock at Michael’s, we discovered holiday stamps there! We chose a Christmas tree shape. This sped up our Christmas card factory significantly.
Making Christmas cards We filled the gift bags with a sticker sheet, a holiday rubber duckie, hand sanitizer, a mask, a pair of socks, a candy cane, and a stick of instant coffee.
christmas gift bags 
christmas gift bag contents 
making christmas cards
- Pumpkin Carving
We went to a farm/nursery up the street from us to check out their pumpkin patch–our normal pumpkin patch closed down a couple of years ago. There was not a huge selection, but we want to support local businesses. Deanna picked out a couple of small ones to paint and a couple of big ones to carve. Boy, have I gotten weak during this pandemic. Those two, big carving pumpkins were a workout!
I was able to save about four cups of pumpkin seeds to roast. I dried them overnight, boiled them, and roasted them three different ways: salted, elote seasoning, and Nashville hot. The Nashville hot came out the best. These are the perfect snacks for grazing while stuck at home!
Scooping out the insides 
Say Pumpkin!! 
Saving the seeds to roast
Deanna naturally chose the most difficult pattern to carve into her pumpkin, to test her patience and to bring out her frustration.
The face of regret 
Sheila’s 
Deanna’s frustration-free pumpkin 
She ended up carving one of the painting pumpkins too
- New Family Member
We recently had a special friend join our family. Her name is Penelope!! She is a long-haired Syrian hamster with a bright personality! We look forward to having her on more adventures and road trips with us.