Friday's FaveFive #350

Welcome to a gorgeous very autumny Friday's Fave Five.  We are half way through October already!  Hard to believe.  The days are just whipping by right now.  Perfect time to slow down and take note of the blessings in our lives.  Please join in!

1.  Thanksgiving!  I would have to say Thanksgiving is my favourite holiday.  There's the awesome food, the family time, the friend time, the day off, the rich meaning and tradition all without the crazy commercialism of what Christmas has become.  We had my mom, my sis and family and Hubby's sis and hubby over for turkey dinner on Saturday.  Monday is the official holiday but when one works from home and has dayhome families coming into one's home, it is just too much to have company for dinner that day as I have to have the house clean!  Talk about stress.  So Saturday was the day and I love that because it allowed me to go to church on Sunday and relax!  We love our traditional turkey and dressing, gravy and mashed potatoes, spaghetti squash, and asparagus.  I broke from tradition this year and made home made cranberry sauce using this recipe.  I will never used canned sauce again.  This was so delicious and so easy.  I also made Crockpot Ranch Mushrooms, a big hit with everyone and  again so easy! I also broke tradition by not getting pumpkin pie and instead got a Costco Pumpkin Cream Cake...soooo good and I tried this Impossible Pie.  Again super easy and everyone really liked it.  I think next time though, I'd put shaved chocolate on the cooled pie to serve.  Sunday it was dinner at my sister's with my dad and a total food fest there too.  It was a wonderful weekend and  I lived in the moment and didn't even get around to taking one picture.  I was too busy just enjoying and soaking in what was going on instead of being behind the lens.  And you know what?  That was ok for this year.  

2.  Control.  In spite of all the delicious food, by the grace of God, I managed to control my during cooking tasting,  my dinner eating and my dessert hoarding. I actually only had a small sliver of desert to taste it and no Pop! That is huge for me.   It's on my favourite list because I've never been able to do this before.  I've always been a total glutton to the point where I just would not stop eating and I was so full yet still stuffing my face.  

3.  Incredible Sunset.  Last Friday, after running into the grocery store for the last of the Thanksgiving dinner stuff, I came out to everyone holding up their cell phones taking pictures of the sky.  It was incredible.  Pictures just can't do it justice.   I couldn't get my phone out of my purse fast enough.  The colors and scene were changing by the minute.   I have never seen the clouds so textured! What a gift from my God who is the great creator and artist!  Great way to start off Thanksgiving!

4.  And the winner is....  I went on Facebook real quick one day this week for a quick check and one of my fave restaurants was running a contest and I won!  Two free lunches.  Me and hubby are going on a date!!

5.  Special gift.  One of my little dayhome kids went to Disneyland last week and she brought back this cute little mug for me.  What a sweet thing for her and her mom to think on me when they were on vacation.  And coffee just tastes better in a princess mug, don't ya know!  And my favourite princess at that.

What were your favourite blessings from the last week?