I had a Star Wars party at work! It was a HUGE success, but I take no credit because all you have to do is mention Star Wars and the kids come flocking! I do take credit for being brave enough to have it at all because my knowledge of Star Wars is lacking to say the least. But I survived, and the kids didn't even know how clueless I was!
My brilliant co-worker had the idea to frame the party as Jedi training, and the kids had to complete four phases of training to earn a Jedi certificate. It was chaotic (we're talking 35 kids, their parents, costumes, the whole nine yards), but fun!
We also put up our Christmas tree earlier then we said we would. Well, earlier then Ben said we would. :-) I talked him into dragging it out on Sunday night! And we are SO proud of how it turned out. We still need a tree skirt, but we're getting there.
After the craziness of not working last Christmas and going home early for a wedding, it was so nice to start Christmas traditions here together. Definitely something we'll remember forever.
Ben bringing the tree in! :-)
And I can't talk about decorating the tree without mentioning that we wouldn't have a tree at all without our very best friends' generosity! They gave us their tree last Christmas and we hauled it up here in the trunk of Ben's car. They got a new one to better fit their nice space in their house, and we got the most wonderful hand-me-down EVER. Thank you best friends!!! :-)I also finally pulled out my Thanksgiving/Fall decor.
Turkey towel!
I realized I never got out most of my Halloween stuff at all, so we went to pull out the Christmas ornaments, I grabbed our fall towels, too. I haven't set our Thanksgiving table yet, so the towel is pretty much all we've got for now. But it does feel festive! :-)
We also went home in the middle of the month for my grandfather's memorial service. It was a sad reason to go home, but the unexpected time with my family was a huge blessing. The service was beautiful, my sister wrote the most wonderful piece for us to read together, and I made it through without completely breaking down. She did WONDERFUL up there (and she's the shy one!). I wouldn't have made it through any of that without her.
Later on in the weekend, we went bowling together! :-)
Sweet Carter/Isley women
Benjamin T. bowling
I may or may not have been terrible at bowling. Hard to say. :-)And who can forget my Junie B. Jones luau at work?
HANDMADE palm tree
The luau was a blast to decorate for because we had lots of luau stuff leftover from a past party. But the palm tree was definitely my pride and joy because I am so UNartistic sometimes. :-) They pinned coconuts on it!And that pretty much sums up what's been going on here for the past couple of weeks. I am already well into my Thanksgiving prep work that I want to accomplish this morning before I head into work this afternoon. I can't wait to get our whole meal together and EAT.