'Tis the Season

It really is the season of giving and sharing and enjoying fall things.  I had such an occasion to celebrate on Friday.  Here's a list:

1. Birthday breakfast for my daughter - she turned 16.  She woke up cheerful (!) and ready to help get the house and food in order so that my mom, grandma, sister and nephew could join us for a scrumptious breakfast.  Celebrations later in the day were not to be and this was a solid compromise to make that fun happen.

2. I received a kind, thoughtful bundle of gratitude from a blog friend, Karon from Karon's Krafty Korner.  Karon and I met via the Cricut website message board in 2012.  We first started following each other's crafty exploits, then we connected via email and exchanged the chatty email.  Recently, I read a post where she was wishing for some Heartfelt Creations tools and I picked the flower set up for her.  Viola, a thank you gift such as this was delivered.

One can't say thank you for a thank you gift.  However, I can point out the lovely homemade card set, the beautiful Christmas card and the so thoughtful thank you tag.  Check Karon out (link above).  She's fascinating to watch and a lovely blog friend.  I decided that just the right thing to squeeze into my day was to use those note cards for their intended purpose.  I just had a birthday and joyfully sat down to write out thank you cards with my gift.  There's quite a bit of fun in that package and I look forward to completing a few Christmas projects so that I might play around with what's there.

3.  We needed to finish 116 cupcakes to celebrate my daughter's birthday with her band family.  See at Thanksgiving dinner with my husband's family we each had to say what we were thankful for.  Katie was thankful for the family that surrounds her- on both my family side and my husband's family side.  She was also thankful for her high school marching band family.  Well, family isn't family without sweet treats for your birthday so...

Two 1/2 full boxes later- were ready for the end of the night (which wouldn't happen until 11 pm).

4. Next was a trip over to Arizona Cardinals stadium in Glendale to watch my daughter march at the beginning of the state high school football championship game.  They did wonderful!  My son, a senior at the same high school was able to cheer his team after watching sissy march her little heart out in a major NFL domed stadium.  The dome was open- it was a beautiful night!

5. Well, folks that high school team, which had not won the state championship in football since 1949, went on to beat the in-district rival Hamilton High School to will the state championships.  It was all fun to watch from a distance (no parents allowed in with the band!) as my daughter played to cheer on the crowd and the team to victory doing a few dances of celebration along the way.  

6. It was a rush to the East side of town, pick up the boxes of cupcakes where they were safely tucked at home and meet the band back on campus to hand out cupcakes.  The band family sang a very lovely Happy Birthday to Katie and we all went home exhausted, happy and full of joy.

I'll stop with the six best things about Friday night.  They are all, by themselves, quite lovely.  We got to get them all at the same time.  My son is a senior who can claim to have won the state championships in football his senior year.  I think even this stoic 18 year old man was pleased with the day!

Thanks for tolerating my gratitude counting.  I love that we can share such things through the blogosphere.  In this world where community sometimes seems to shrink it is encouraging to connect across the miles and the bytes of data.