Sweetness and Light

In Thanksgiving

We will be cozied up for a great Thanksgiving with family at home this year! And no Thanksgiving would be complete without including this great read aloud from one of our all-time favorite authors. Our version has a different cover, but it's still the same in text I believe.

I am so thankful for all my visitors and friends who make this site all the more Sweet!! God bless you and your families during this holiday and may we always be ever thankful for our dear Lord in Heaven and His blessed Mother who guides us to his salvation!

Happiest Thanksgiving wishes to you all. Love Meredith and family.

Thanksgiving Blessings!

 Wishing you and yours a most blessed Thanksgiving! We are so grateful for all the goodness in our lives that has been handed down to us from God. Please remember all those who have gone before us and those serving in the military this holiday and keep them in your thoughts and prayers!

May our hearts also be thankful for good Saint Catherine who as a virgin and martyr converted many to the faith with her courage and sharp mind. May she be forever glorified by God and may we bless the angels who carried her body and soul to Mt. Sinai!

 Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Abundant Blessings to You!

Wishing all my visitors, friends and family far and near abundant blessings on this very special Thanksgiving!

We are so thankful for so many things in our lives, but first and foremost our faith and our family. It is the core of our Sweetness and Light :)

I will be taking a little blogging break to prepare my home and my family for the First Sunday of Advent this weekend! 

My prayer is that you will be able to spend time with the ones you love the most, pray for the ones who are not with us any longer, and enjoy the goodness and bounty of the Lord as you celebrate the freedom of our country on this Blessed Thanksgiving Day! God Bless you and God Bless America!
 

We Are So Thankful!

I am so thankful for all of you!  Have the best Thanksgiving celebrations with your friends and family.  I wish you all good health, peace and lots of rest after all that TURKEY!!  Here is my favorite poem for this grateful day!

 

A Boy's Thanksgiving Day

Over the river, and through the wood,
to Grandfather's house we go;
the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river, and through the wood-
oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose,
as over the ground we go.

Over the river, and through the wood,
to have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring, "Ting a ling ding!"
Hurray for Thanskgiving Day!

Over the river, and through

Trot fast my dapple gray,
Spring over the ground like a hunting-hound
For this is Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river, and through the wood-
and straight for the barnyard gate;
We seem to go extremely slow
It is so hard to wait!

Over the river and through the wood
Now grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the Fun, is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

~by Lydia Maria Child~

Thankfully Good!!!

Here is the Walnut and Clay Placecard Violet created for our Thanksgiving table this year!  She delights in making new and different ones every year and this one was especially cute!  We had a lovely Thanksgiving and I sure hope you all did as well.  So what to do with all those leftovers???  Trit-trot on over to Sweetness in the Kitchen for a super easy and yummy recipe!!  Have a great day!

Bountiful Blessings!!!

To All my faithful and lovely visitors, friends and family, Sweetness and Light wishes you the most Bountiful Blessings in your Thanksgiving celebrations with your family and friends!  I am SO THANKFUL for YOU! 

I leave you off to your cooking and cleaning and all your pre-holdiay preparations with my favorite Thanksgiving Poem.  We sing this every Thanksgiving along with the hymns: We Gather Together and Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow!!  Happy Feasting! 

A Boy's Thanksgiving Day

Over the river, and through the wood,
to Grandfather's house we go;
the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh
through the white and drifted snow.

Over the river, and through the wood-
oh, how the wind does blow!
It stings the toes and bites the nose,
as over the ground we go.

Over the river, and through the wood,
to have a first-rate play.
Hear the bells ring, "Ting a ling ding!"
Hurray for Thanskgiving Day!

Over the river, and through
Trot fast my dapple gray,
Spring over the ground like a hunting-hound
For this is Thanksgiving Day!

Over the river, and through the wood-
and straight for the barnyard gate;
We seem to go extremely slow
It is so hard to wait!

Over the river and through the wood
Now grandmother's cap I spy!
Hurrah for the Fun, is the pudding done?
Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!

~by Lydia Maria Child~

In Case You Need Some Recipe Ideas...

Here's a few delicious links to get you thinking YUMMO!

Sweetness and Light Thanksgiving Menu (last year) Our menu will be a little lighter this year as there are just the six of us! (We hope our turkey turns out this good again :)

Simple Gifts Thanksgiving

Food Network Turkey Recipes

Everything Martha Stewart for Thanksgiving

And, just in case you really need something extra special for your holiday week:

This delightful post from the ever-eloquent Lori at Montessori for Everyone!  Enjoy!

Our Week of Thanksgiving

It is Thanksgiving week, already, as if I haven't been inundated with enough Christmas frenzy already, we still have our Thankful Week to rush through, I mean enjoy, before we head in to one of the most beautiful times of our Liturgical year, the season of Advent, of waiting, and preparation for the Birth of Our Lord.

This of course isn't the only week of the year that we are truly thankful for all the blessings in our lives, there are so many levels of gratefulness here at Sweetness and Light, it would take a year of blog posts to list them all, but for this week, we are focusing on our Family Life and Love and what it means to Supplicate and Praise God for all his goodness in our lives.  Hearth and Home of course will be at the forefront as we prepare all of our delectable eats for Thanksgiving Day!

Our Thankful Tree is beginning to blossom, here's a picture of what it looked like last year at this time,

...and if you haven't seen all the lovely Thankful Tree pictures that Karen Edmisten put together last year, it's a nice visit for your week, and it's not too late to whip one of these up!!  We will be watercolor painting more leaves today and filling up our tree all week!!

Picture Book Spotlight for this Week:

Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin (see resources at Homeschool Share)

Chester Chipmunk's Thanksgiving by Barbara Williams

An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott

The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dagliesh

A Turkey for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Poems selections by Myra Cohn Livingston

The Landing of the Pilgrims, Landmark Book

We made a lapbbok for Cranberry Thanksgiving several years ago, so I think this might be the week for a new one!!  Our Stitches and Stories read-aloud this week will be An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving and listening to The Children's Book of America, The Pilgrims First Landing.

We are enjoying all of the afternoon handicraft projects, especially our new knitting delights, I hope to post progress on my Tasha Tudor Shawl this week!

Another thing we will enjoy Wednesday in honor of The Presentation of the Child Mary is a scrumptious Carmel Apple Cider Teatime reminiscent of Dawn's yummy recipe!  This is a must have treat and especially yummy to the littlest ones!

I hope you are having an especially calm week of Thanksgiving with your sweet families!

Our Thankful Tree

Karen E. asked for pictures of our Thankful Trees and so I was happy to share ours.  We have done this every Thanksgiving since my dear children could watercolor the leaves!!  We truly enjoy this project and have fun most of November preparing our leaves.  We are so thankful to be able to share this with you!!  Thanks so much Karen for putting this together!!

Giving Thanks

We have so much to be thankful for it's hard sometimes to know where to start.  The obvious is to thank Our Heavenly Father for ALL that we have, because it is from Him, and our faith confirms this.  I want to wish ALL my visitors, friends and family and this wonderful community of bloggers that share their lives with so many a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I am so thankful for ALL of YOU!!

May God Bless you in your Thanksgiving day with your families!!

Thanksgiving

We're gearing up for a nice relaxing Week of Thanksgiving here at Sweetness and Light.  One of the many benefits and joys of Home Education is that we are free to school in any manner that we choose for our families, and for us it means slowing down and really taking advantage of Holidays to celebrate and build family traditions together.  After all it's all part of the grand plan anyway!!

We are having a quiet Thanksgiving day as we will not be traveling this year, so we have some nice things planned to try and savor each day this week ahead. Here's what I have in mind, albeit flexible to lend it's way for any rabbit trails we may encounter or conjur up along the way!

Read Lots of Thanksgiving Picture Books (See Right Side Bar)

Celebrate this Week's Saints Feasts:  St. Edmund, Presentation of BVM, St. Cecelia, St. Columba, St. Clement, St. Andrew Dung-Lac & companions, St. Catherine of Alexandria, Christ the King!!

Thanksgiving Baking:  Pumpkin & Pecan Pies, Cornbread, Pumpkin Bread (for gifts), Thanksgiving Morning Muffins

Our Menu is simple but delicious:

Roast Turkey ala Martha Stewart Turkey 101

Cranberry-Orange Sauce

Brussel Sprouts w/ Hazelnuts

Irish Potatoes

Spinach Salad w/ Candied Sliced Almonds 

Sweet Potatoes

Oyster Stuffing (plain for me & the kids)

Cornbread w/ Molasses

Pumpkin & Pecan Pie w/ real Whipped Cream

Crafts: 

Adding thankful leaves to our Thanksgiving tree (pics forthcoming)

We'll make our own napkin rings with fall ribbon

Turkey painted handprint placecards

Some cute Tom-tom favors from this book

Paint grocery bags to deliver our food for the poor on Thanksgiving day after Mass

Most of all we plan to play lots of family games together, take long walks in our beautiful late Autumn weather, and share ALL the reasons we have to be thankful!!  May God Bless your week of preparation!

In Thanksgiving for Saints and Celebrations

The Thanksgiving Bookshelf is stocked and we're gearing up for lots of cozy read-alouds with Hot Cider and popcorn by the fire as we approach our country's beloved and oldest holiday!  There are so many lovely Feasts and Celebrations ahead of us as we meander through November and feel the solemn mood of darkening days and head into Advent. 

One of my children's favorites is the Feast of Martinmas that comes on this Saturday, November 11th!  We've already started preparing for our day by re-reading our Saints stories and making pictures and narrations. 

Here is Matthias's Picture and Narration:

Martin was a soldier in France.  One day, he and some other soldiers were going home when they met a poor man dressed in rags.  "We must help that man," said Martin, "or he will die in the cold weather, for he does not have a thick cloak like we do."  "What are you going to do?" asked another soldier.  Martin took his cloak and cut it in two, giving half to the poor man and keeping the other half.

That night, when Martin was in bed, he saw the man by his bed, he was Jesus.  "Martin,"  said Jesus, "when you help others, you are helping me."  "I was the man you gave half your cloak to."  Martin did good things for the rest of his life, and when he died, the Church made him a Saint. 

The children are already practicing and rehearsing a special St. Martin's Day drama which will certainly delight us!  We hope to make some beautiful lanterns, such as those described in Mrs. Sharp's Traditions, and process around our neighborhood to illuminate our way and sing of the praises of this good Saint!  I imagine there will be a new Craft Spoon Saint of St. Martin of Tours as well!  We will also be remembering all of the Brave Men and Women who serve to keep our country safe and those who have gone before them for Veteran's Day! I imagine our flag will also be flying high for these Saints in the making!

Other Feasts we're looking forward to in addition to Thanksgiving, are St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, St. Albert the Great, St. Rose Duchesne, St. Margaret of Scotland, St. Elizabeth of Hungary, The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  Feast of Christ the King, St. Andrew the Apostle.  I assure you there are no shortage of celebrations before we reach Advent and our time of waiting for our Blessed Saviour! 

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below,

Praise Him above Ye Heavenly Host,

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!

Amen.

As we tuck in for these shorter days and longer nights, may we always remember that the Light of the World is always with us.  May God bless you in your day!