November
FABULOUS FALL
Being November, I was thinking about the Holidays coming up and wondering how it will go with Covid19 on the loose. There are questions. Can I be with family? It would be hard to not be with family in person. What about getting the necessary food items for the holidays, the turkey for Thanksgiving, the Ham for Christmas, all the sides, desserts, you know the stuff. The thought of shopping for food during a normal holiday season gives me anxiety. What about gift-giving? Will the malls be open? I do like looking at the decorations and people watching with a cup of peppermint cocoa. The thought of people shoulder to shoulder gives me anxiety as well though. So many questions about whats to come in November, but in the words of that great animated philosopher, Bugs Bunny, “On with the show this is it!”
TO THINK🦃
peering from some high
window;at the gold
of november sunset
(and feeling:that if day
has to become night
this is a beautiful way)
~e.e. cummings
TO EAT🍞
As a youngster of about 6, I started to learn to bake. At first, it was biscuits for the Sunday dinner, a few pies, sugar cookies for Christmas that rapidly turned into me adapting and “fixing” recipes. This is my bread recipe that 12 years old me wrote down and I have been making it since. My family calls it T-Bread.
T Bread
51/2 – 61/2 cups all purpose flour
1C Milk
1C Water
2T Sugar
2T oil
½ T salt
2 packages of Yeast
- Stir 2C flour and 2 packages of yeast together. Set aside
- Add milk, water, sugar oil, and salt in a saucepan. Heat on low until warm, stirring constantly.
- Add milk mixture to flour mixture. Beat until smooth, approx. 2 min.
- Add 1 cup of flour and beat for 1 minute.
- Stir in enough flour to form a stiff dough.
- Turn onto a floured board and knead for 8- 10 minutes until elastic.
- Shape dough into a ball.
- Place into a greased bowl, turning so all sides are greased.
- Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (1 hour)
- Punch down dough and divide into halves
- Shape into balls and let rise 10 minutes
- Shape into loaves (2) place into loaf pans brush tops with oil.
- Let rise 1 hour
- Bake at 400 for 30- 35 minutes
- Let cool and serve.
TO WATCH🍿
For the Littles: Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving. There are three stories! A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving, Groundpiglet Day and Find Her, Keep Her.
For the I am not a baby anymore: Garfield’s Thanksgiving. Jon meets a Vet who puts Garfield on a diet right before Thanksgiving.
For the tweens: Jim Henson’s Turkey Hollow Tim and Annie’s family go to Turkey Hollow to visit Aunt Cly. The kids grow bored because there is no internet so they decided to track down local legend The HooDoo.
For the Teens: Adams Family Values. The family tries to save Uncle Fester from his new love interest. Wednesday rewrites the history of Thanksgiving.
For everyone: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. This classic movie with all of the Peanuts gang is a tradition for us to watch.
TO MAKE ✂
To make these cute Santa Star ornaments you will need

Wooden unpainted stars.
Acrylic paint
Pre-made felt Santa hat ( you could make your own)
Red bead
twine
Glue
Drill a hole into star (for hanging on the tree) before painting.
I painted front of star a flesh colored and the back of the star white.
Let dry.
Paint white for beard and hair. Make sure to leave enough of flesh color to paint eyes.
Let dry.
Paint eyes. I put two black circles for eyes and a small dab of white for pupil
Paint cheeks. I used a rose color and painted two circles for cheeks
Paint a line on bottom of eye from inside to slight outside of eye to create cheeks. I used black.
Paint a red mouth.
Glue Santa hat on one arm of star. Fold and glue top of hat across star.
Place glue inside of red bed. Thread Twine though hole in star, through red bead and knot for hanging. Push red bead down onto tip of star. Dry.
All images are copyrighted ©tlwhitaker and or ©craftedbytw unless otherwise noted.