Our Fall Felines (and a Princess)

Knowing that this might be my last year to convince all three girls to wear the same costume, I tried in vain to persuade Verity to join her younger sisters as tigers but the allure of a sparkly Belle costume won out. No, the people here do not celebrate Halloween but in our family, dress-up is a daily activity!

Here are our girls in costumes that my mom mailed us. By the way, can you tell that Annalise was frightened by her costume? Not celebrating Halloween here is a not a huge loss to our family; we didn't celebrate it the traditional way in the States anyhow. Back in California, we usually had fun as a family at our church's fall Family Fun Fest. (My original plan here was to host a fall costume party for the younger kids in town but felt too overwhelmed to pull it together as I am still adjusting to life here! Next year perhaps?)

Now that November is here, our family will start our annual "Garland of Gratitude" during our dinners in preparation for the Thanksgiving holiday. We want to help our kids see Thanksgiving not as a "big turkey meal" (which definitely is one highlight) but also as an opportunity to focus on God as our source of life and blessings.

During each dinner this month, we allow every family member to share something for which they are thankful and it is written on a long slip of paper. These slips of papers are then linked together to form a paper chain. By thanksgiving, we will have a long "garland" in our apartment to remind us of our blessings!! (At the end of the month, I type up everybody's responses to keep in a scrapbook. These will be fun for the girls to read when they are older.)

I'm especially excited because Annalise can now join in verbally. Right now, she loves to pray for our meals and instead of saying "thank you" in English, she started saying it in the other language. Last year, Verity "interpreted" Annalise's answers for us. I'm sure that this year, Annalise & Verity will insist on "interpreting" Moriah's babbles.

Happy November to you!