Minnesota is Heaven, But Virginia is Home

 Home sweet home (for now...)   Turkey tealights and my plucked from the front/backyard bouquet After supper games     Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family around the world!  I trust that everyone ate until their buttons strained, had that second piece of pie and then dozed while watching football.  And then got up and went Black Friday shopping.   Fact:  I did not know that Black Friday is called Black Friday because it's the only day that merchants are "in the black" versus in the red.  I'm not sure that I believe that anyway.  Are you telling me that Target is running at a loss the other 364 days of the year?  That can't possibly be true. Fact:  I won't even make you laugh by telling you why I thought it was called Black Friday...   We had the traditional dinner of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggie and rolls.  The kids did not like 98% of the food we set in f...

Well, I guess, technically speaking...HANS has got a gun and Rachel uses it from time to time. So, I signed up through the NRA for a basic pistol course that I will be taking next Saturday for about four hours.  This time includes some basic instruction on parts and caring for the gun as well as range time and a stop at a dealer afterwards to "shop".  I like Hans' gun and it has been oohed over already by the Marine LTCOL who is going to be teaching the course.  He says (and of course, in the De For household we already know this) that the Germans know how to do things right.  Sig Sauer .40 is what we own. This gun is a little big for me, though.  I barely have the upper body strength to put a bullet in the chamber, so I'm thinking that I'll look around for something a little more...feminine?  Just smaller, maybe a Walther .22.  James Bond has a Walther, so I'm down with that and we're still sticking to the German family of guns. I know that...

Finally, Halloween pics!  But first, a couple from last week's Fall Festival at Larchmont Elementary.  We purchased tickets to have BBQ and then played free games in the backyard.  I love how the PTO handles fundraising at LES--get-togethers rather than door-to-door sales. (By the by, can you believe how beautiful our daughter is?  I mean, really!?) The backyard at Larchmont Elementary--they have a school garden here.  I had no idea it existed until Fall Festival. Annika, transformed into a tigress.  Rawrrrrr!  Josiah participated in the sack race.  Halloween, traditional doorstep picture before trick-or-treating.    Will as The Dragon, Josiah as Luigi, Annika as a Tigress  I can't decide which of these is cuter, so I'll just stick both in here!        Halloween was short and sweet, just the way Mr. De For and I like it.  Our friends Cory and Patty invited us to stop...