Monday, November 22, 2021

November Happenings and have a Happy Thanksgiving!






It will be a busy week ahead as I prepare for our Thanksgiving dinner and our daughter's "new decade" birthday!


Our Thanksgiving buffet photo collage from 2020

As our family gathers we have a large appetizer-style lunch with delicious orange, pineapple, and strawberry champagne punch we make every year. 
For dinner, l roast a large turkey, and sometimes a baked ham if we have many guests, and many sides--giblet gravy, sausage and mushroom stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, a few varying vegetables, cranberry sauce, fresh rolls and of course apple and pumpkin pies and a birthday cake for dessert. Everyone takes home a good portion of leftovers for the next day's meal.

It is wonderful to give thanks for the blessings of family, our country's freedoms and abundance, and our good health! 
More than ever, during this pandemic, we can not take good health for granted. 


Now for what's been happening this month of November...

A view of some of the Colorado front range taken from the Denver International Airport area

Tomorrow, the Denver area of Colorado breaks a weather record that dates back to 1934--a Dust Bowl year--for the latest snowfall!  Our autumn has been unusually warm and dry. The ski resort areas above 9,000 feet have had some snow and they supplement with man-made snow, but the front range has been extremely dry. It's not something to celebrate and I hope our weather returns to normal and does not continue this way for much longer.  Wildfires are always a danger when there are drought and high wind.



Some beautiful November sunsets that we've marveled at.




Local deer visitors to my back and front yards.  It's always a joy to see them! They have been having a good time munching all the fallen leaves from our trees.


One of our backyard tree's resident squirrels has enjoyed eating a leftover Halloween pumpkin.  We had a lot of fun watching him from our window for a few days as he devoured all the pumpkin seeds first and then worked on eating the pumpkin flesh. 





My youngest grandson is one of the trombone players in this photo of his elementary school's 5th-grade band.  They played in a wonderful combination school district concert this month, along with 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade junior high school, as well as a 9th-grade high school band.  Bravo to all the students who are learning to play music as an extracurricular activity! My older grandson plays viola in his junior high school orchestra.


My husband and I attended Opera Colorado's production of one of our favorite operas this month--Giacomo Puccini's "Tosca" in the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver, Colorado.  The cast takes its final curtain call bow in the collage above. Bravo!  We loved it! 




Wishing all who celebrate this week 
a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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I'm linking this post to some of the following blog events:

 Mosaic MondayBlue Monday, Through My Lens MondayHearth, and Soul Link PartyYou Are the Star Blog Hop, Inspire Me MondayHome Matters Linky Party,  Good Random FunNature NotesGrand SocialTravel Photos, Travel TuesdayHappiness Is Homemade, Our World TuesdayRuby TuesdayTuesday's TreasuresTuesdays With A Twist, Wordless Wednesday on a Tuesday,  Party in Your PJ'sWordless WednesdayOh My Heartsie Girl's Wonderful Wednesday, Wednesday My Corner of the WorldWonderful WednesdaySigns2 Little Things ThursdayThankful Thursday,  Thursday Encouraging Hearts and Home,  Thursday Thinking Out Loud, Thursday Favorite ThingsFriendship FridaysA Morning Cup of JoeFriday Features Linky Party, Skywatch FridayWeekend Roundup,  Pink SaturdaySaturday SparksSaturday CrittersSunday on Silverado
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32 comments:

William Kendall said...

Happy thanksgiving to you.

Linda said...

Great photos. Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

Soma @ inkTorrents.com said...

Hoping for more rain and snow for us in CA too along with CO. Beautiful photos, and gorgeous sunsets. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family and a very Happy Birthday to your daughter.

-Soma

eileeninmd said...

Hello Patricia

Your Thanksgiving dinner sounds delicious. Happy Birthday to your daughter. The sunsets are stunning, beautiful views. Love the deer and squirrel photos, they are all so cute. Bravo to both of your grandsons on playing their musical instruments, a creative and engaging activity. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Have a great day and week ahead.

Penny from Enjoying The Simple Things said...

Happy Birthday to your daughter and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

Jeanie said...

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I'm grateful you can be surrounded by your family with plenty on the table, and able to do more "normal" things than we were able to do a year ago. Your photos are beautiful. I was going to put my pumpkins in the back yard, but maybe I'll take one or two down to the ditch for the deer. Although I think they'll still come out in the yard. I never see them but apparently they make themselves known as I bypass their leftovers as I walk in the yard!

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

It sure is beautiful there at this time of year! Happy Thanksgiving week to you my friend!

Daniela said...

Dear Pat,
let me wish you a most wonderful Thanksgiving Day, to you and your dear ones, and Happy Birthday to your daughter too!
Much love
XO Dany

NCSue said...

Thanks for sharing seasonal beauty with us at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2021/11/autumn-beaty-remembered.html
Wishing you a lovely Thanksgiving!

Lydia C. Lee said...

Those landscapes are stunning!! Just fabulous. I love the Opera but so expensive here, so we only go every couple of years. Except the one on that water. I manage to get $100 tickets to that...

ellen b. said...

Wonderful photos and happenings. I do hope you get snow soon!! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

stevebethere said...

Fantasti photos a Happy Thanksgiving to you I hope you saved me some of that delicious food heheh1:-)

Have a thanksgivingtastic week 👍

Ruth Hiebert said...

Happy Thanksgiving . All that food looks so delicious .

Joanne said...

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving. We haven't had any snow or ice yet this year either but we have had lots and lots of rain. Hoping your weather turns around soon.

margi said...

Happy Thanksgiving! The sunsets are wonderful and animal visitors are so cute!

Lowcarb team member said...

Lovely to see all of your photographs.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving dinner and your daughter's "new decade" birthday :)

All the best Jan

Powell River Books said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you. What a wonderful day of feasting for your family. - Margy

Angie said...

Pat - your past Thanksgiving buffet looks delicious! Enjoy your family gathering this year - so many blessings for which we can be grateful! I can relate to the lack of snow - our local ski resort still has lots of grass showing on the runs, and opening day is only 2 weeks away! Thanks for linking to Mosaic Monday, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Veronica Lee said...

Your Thanksgiving dinner sounds wonderful!

Happy Birthday to your daughter!

Love the photos, Pat!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Happy Thanksgiving Pat (or probably I should say, I know it was happy, since I have a feeling you may not have time to read any of your comments until after the big day!! It was lovely seeing your November pictures! The sunsets, deer, and of course your family times all make such great memories. I do know the "good" fall weather is not really that at all and I hope you get snow soon. (Last year, in Oregon we had the same thing with no rain!)

Handmade in Israel said...

Your Thanksgiving menu sounds amazing! You've had some beautiful skies over Denver and some gorgeous wildlife too!

Linda said...

Beautiful skies and deer! Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

XmasDolly said...

So many wonderful pictures! So happy you got together with your family. I'm sure it built everyone's morale up considerably. I sure wish I could with my family, but we're not. My son has to work and my daughter's son has Covid and she doesn't want to take the chance of passing it especially to me (I'm 72). So I am making Turkey & her favorite my stuffing anyway that she loves and dropping some off for her. What baby wants baby gets and after dinner tomorrow the Christmas decor is going to start going up. My other two children live in Missouri and I still can't get use to that, but Christmas they'll be here. We always get together for that if my youngest daughter's job lets her cuz she's a nurse (God bless her). Anyway HAPPY THANKSGIVING my new acquaintance. hugs, Marie aka XmasDolly

XmasDolly said...

These photos are absolutely wonderful! That fawn is just too cute! I wish I would've come out earlier, but Thanksgiving preparations held me back and I still have more to do & believe it or not as much as I'm cooking only the hubby & I will be here, but my eldest daughter's son has COVID so mama to the rescue Turkey is gobbling her way! What can I say she's my baby! HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU!!!

Rambling Woods said...

Happy Thanksgiving.....Michelle

XmasDolly said...

Not sure if I left a comment or not, and I don't see one, sooooooo what the heck! HELLO MY NEW FRIEND! May I call you friend? What a great post/blog you have here. We haven't had snow yet, except for a few snow flurries the other day. I'm about 45 minutes west of Chicago in a town called Batavia. We're part of the tri-cities, which is St. Charles, Geneva and Batavia which is where I'm at. Such beautiful talkative photos you have. You have a great eye for a really good picture! So right now I'm getting our Thanksgiving dinner ready. Due to covid it will only be my husband and I oh yes and Charlie. He's our pet dog and he's a black/brown Labrador and he's a great dog too!!! Anyway must break my bread for stuffing. I'll be taking a ride to my eldest daughter who has four children and she loves loves, loves my stuffing, so I'll be dropping some off over there. Unfortunately my grandson her third child of four has "Covid"! I cried my eyes out for him, but alas he's getter better. Anyway HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO YOU AND YOURS & HAVE A GREAT DAY! :)

XmasDolly said...

By the way, you sure have a great eye for a fabulous picture! Oh, and if the email below doesn't work use this one it DEFINITELY WORKS! xmasdolly@comcast.net - HAVE A GREAT HOLIDAY MY NEW FRIEND! HAPPY TURKEY DAY! :)

Jim said...

Wow at the sky montage.

eileeninmd said...

Hello Pat,

what a wonderful post, gorgeous photos. The food looks yummy. Gorgeous views of the mountains and sunsets. The deer are so pretty, I love seeing them. Cute squirrels too. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a happy weekend! PS, thank you for leaving me a comment!

Spare Parts and Pics said...

Looks like your Thanksgiving was a good one! Beautiful photos. Hope you get more snow soon. Must be a tough time for ski resort operators.

Powell River Books said...

The chipmunks and squirrel at my float cabin are having to fend for themselves while we are off snowbirding in Arizona. - Margy

Donna @ Modern on Monticello said...

Thanks for sharing. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well. #HomeMattersParty