A Bunch of Stuff

Where to begin. Last week was Fall Break. The girls and I had Thursday and Friday off school. It wasn't a break at all. Steve took Friday off and we went to work. We knew it was going to be one of the last "warm" weekends left to get the garden ready for winter. I cut all the pumpkins on Tuesday and got rid of the vine. Then Friday the girls and I tackled the Tomato bushes. I am learning that here in the north, there are always a lot of tomatoes that don't ripen. We wait as long as we can, and always end up with A LOT of green tomatoes. Anyway, the vines came down. Steve dug up two big stumps, I cut down a lilac bush. We borrowed a friends truck and Steve go a truck load of compost. We borrow a neighbors rototill, so Steve always does her garden first. That left me to empty the truck of it's load so we could till the compost in. I emptied the whole thing except about two wheelbarrows full. Then when Steve brought the tiller, I decided to give it a try. It's a big tiller, and I wanted to know if I could do it. I did!!!! All by myself, pretty cool. (Although my body would disagree with me today).
In between all of this, we were bottling plum juice and grape juice. The tomatoes sat and waited on the counter. Thanks to Facebook I discovered a green tomato sauce recipe that doesn't require peeling the tomato. That's what I am working on tonight. I am so glad not to have to peel, but I still have lots of tomatoes to go!!! Harvest is awesome, but really tiring too.

Today the girls found out the "truth" behind Santa. They have been asking up stuff about it for a few weeks, and we kept avoiding it. This morning at breakfast it came up again, and so we spilled the beans. I really appreciate how Steve explained it, although I can't really summarize it and do it justice. Basically, he said Santa represented someone who gives their time to others all year, and give presents to show his love. So he said that the idea of Santa isn't untrue, it's just that it's your parents who give their time all year to serve, and then give you a present to show their love. We asked if they still wanted Santa to come, and the answer was a resounding yes. I guess the magic isn't dead yet. Here is a quick preview of our family photo shoot. I haven't had time to really go through all of them yet. I hope to get some others posted soon.

Kathryn


Juliana