Give Thanks

Well, this is over a month belated, but once it got near Halloween, I thought I would save this to share in time for American Thanksgiving. If you read as many craft blogs as I do, you can't help but being reminded once Halloween is over, that Thanksgiving is on its way. I'm still not sure I fully appreciate the magnitude of the American Thanksgiving holiday, except that someone told me it's almost bigger than Christmas. That's helpful, I guess.

 Can you see the shadow of my hands in the photo? 

I took this picture with no flash on my point & shoot.

Here is the pie I made this Thanksgiving. I was happy with the crust. It worked this time. The first time I made pie crust on my own, I didn't have a pastry blender and I didn't cut the lard pieces small enough since I had read a tip that it was good not to make them too small. I guess I didn't go quite small enough because when I rolled it out, I could see pieces of lard that then stuck to my rolling pin and... well, it wasn't pretty.

 I did a little bit of playing in iPhoto with these pictures, to warm them up a bit. 

They had a bit of a greeny tinge, which isn't so nice when you're thinking pie.

After yesterday's light post, you'll probably notice that something is a little off about these pictures. Our good camera was in the shop over Thanksgiving. It gave out on us during what was supposed to be a lovely little fall photo shoot at Prairie Gardens & Greenhouses. Fortunately it was still under warranty, and while the guy at McBain said it would take 6 - 12 weeks to get back (I was freaking out: that meant it could get back after Christmas). Happily, they under-promised and over-delivered and it ended up only taking 4 weeks and I had it back in time for Halloween. The point and shoot we have has a "food" setting, which I used for these pictures. Maybe it helped. I don't know.

We have some plastic letter stamps which I usually just let the kids use with the playdough, but they're the closest thing I have to alphabet cutters. I had to be extra careful since they are stamps and not cutters, so I had to gently dig the cut out letter from the inside of the stamp after I cut it in order to use them on the top. You have to look carefully to see the raised word "GIVE" above the cut out word, but it's there.

Happy Thanksgiving preparations, my American friends!