We have a tradition at our home of making gingerbread houses around Christmas time.  We mass-produce the main shapes so that all that has to be done is the decorating part.

Everyone likes to decorate their houses in their own way - some put on lots of candy, while others would rather put on less; some like to make their houses fancy, while other prefer to keep their houses simple.  There seem to be two antithetical philosophies in decorating these houses: the goal is either aesthetic or palatableness.  Well, there are some in-between houses, too.

Elizabeth made this neat-looking gingerbread house.

Another tradition we have at our home is the making and distributing of cookie plates.  The recipients of these plates vary from year to year, but generally include friends, pastors, widows, people in need in various ways, and people or organizations that are helpful to the community.

This year we brought cookie plates and thank-you notes to the fire stations, the ambulance station, and the police stations.  The ambulance station was closed (because it was Christmas eve), but we happened to catch an ambulance pulling out, about to start their shift.  The police seemed the most surprised of them all.  I suppose most people don't think to thank the police.

I Peter 2:13-14 "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well."

     We have received several comments on our family photo this year, so I thought it would be interesting to write a post on its production.  Ever since our family outgrew the Walmart photo studio, we have taken our own family photos.  This year's is by far the best we have done.  Thank you, David, for all the labour you put into this!  Jonathan, thank you for being his assistant!

     Many times we have taken our family photo in picturesque outdoor locations such as in front of the cedar hedge, against the "pierre du champ" wall of our house, or even simply by the spreading weeping willow by the road.  The reason for these being taken outdoors is primarily the fact that indoor pictures are very difficult to take due to lighting problems.  During this past year, however, we learned a bit concerning lighting from various sources.  So, David made the great attempt: a studio-style indoor family photo!  Accomplishing this feat required quite a bit of planning and preparation.  Our house does not afford any convenient photo background walls, so a background was constructed using a white sheet.

     Then the lighting needed to be arranged...  Nathanael's construction light came in handy as did a motion detecting light that was at one point mounted on the barn wall and a worklight of sorts made a number of years ago from scraps of lumber, aluminium foil, and a halogen bulb.

     Then came the picture taking...  We probably took dozens of photos.  The camera was giving us some trouble with getting the colours right.  Shadows were also very difficult to eliminate.

After a while, we decided to change the background colour to black by using some Geo-textile left over from the construction.

And then the photo-taking session resumed...

Here is the finalist.

But even still, our expert photo manager had to do some alterations to perfect it.

     "Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep. Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." Psalm 127

We are mailing all our family newsletters in the next few weeks, but we realize that not everyone that visits our blog necessarily receives our newletter. So, if you are interested in receiving an FFF&F (or if you do receive one and really don't want to), just use this form to contact us. If you received one last year, there is a good chance you are already on our mailing list, but you never know...

There are two times in the year when visiting extended family is considered important: Christmas and Thanksgiving.  We think of having our family over for such occasions as being hospitable.  But how many people do we have to have over to be hospitable?  Is 5 enough?  Or should it be twice as many people as you normally have at home?  Can it be immediate family, or must it be strangers?

What is real hospitality?  A good definition of hospitality is "cheerfully sharing food, shelter, and spiritual refreshment with those whom God brings into my life."  So, whether we have 73 people over, or only a few, the important thing is sharing what you have with those whom God brings into our lives.

We had 73 people over the Friday before Thanksgiving, and then had all the Sherbrooke Gideons and their wives (about 15 people) over for an honorary supper on Thanksgiving Day.

But what would it be to have company without there being some kind of disaster?  The one I remember best is the turkey disaster.

The turkey decided it was tired of sitting in a pan of boiling liquid, so when I pulled it part way out of the oven, it promptly released that liquid all over the oven door, the floor and my feet, which happened to be under me as I was removing the turkey.  I am very grateful for Elizabeth and Jonathan who willingly helped clean up the mess.  Overall, however, the preparation went very well, and we had the opportunity of meeting a few new people.

Although almost all the leaves have fallen now, we did had some beautiful autumn weather this year.  Thanksgiving Friday was one such day so, as I was outside waiting for people to arrive, I thought I would take advantage of it to take some pictures of what remained of the beautiful autumn foliage.

colourful maple leaves

1 Peter 4:9-10 "Use hospitality one to another without grudging.  As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."

Last night we had our first frost.  We did see it coming, so last Friday, we all got outside and picked the garden.  We have the habit of weighing everything we pick, so I thought I would take advantage of the fact and put some of the weights here. 

It was a beautiful fall day, with the leaves just beginning to change colours.

The half moon was hovering over the colourful maples, so I couldn't resist taking this picture.

We didn't plant all these pumpkins; some of them came up of their own accord in the compost pile.  I guess they liked the soil there: the pumpkins grew quite well!

All together, we grew about 200 lbs of pumpkin.  We grew almost as much tomato - 150 lbs.

We don't know what type of apple most of our trees give, as they were already there when we moved here, but we think they are not grafted.  They do give excellent apples, though.

While we were picking apples from one tree, another picker came along.  You may have to click on the pictures to tell who it was.

We decided to wash the carrots right away to keep them from going bad too fast.

Carrots were not the only things that needed a little washing...

Let's just say the floor did too.

Psalm 75:1 "Unto thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto thee do we give thanks: for that thy name is near thy wondrous works declare".