An arts & craftsy kind of Thanksgiving

For the past 4 years, MY favorite Thanksgiving tradition has been meeting up w/ my blogger friends to eat, laugh until I cry & talk about all the nonsense we see on social media.   I don't get to see these gals NEARLY enough & the time we spend together seems to fly by.  

And because they have been stalking me for years - they know me.  They know I tease, chastise & make fun because I L-O-V-E. (And they give it right back to me which I also L-O-V-E.)

This was never more evident than when Gretchen had to change up the timing of her travels home to meet up with us.  She knows I NEED to have a plan & when she changed the time to a "tentative" (!) time one day before we met - well....that created a lot of harassing texts about TENTATIVE times & such between us.  

And since you have to be able to take it to dish it - I was not left out of the harassment.  I got to hear comments about the change messing up my calendar colors on my phone....

We met up for Mexican & when our meals came out they were all huge...except Gretchen's.  She had 2 small, sad chicken tacos...

But the joke was on us when it was time to pay the tab.  Sure, my chicken fajita quesadilla was delicious (& I took half home to B-rad for his supper) but it was $13.  G paid a mere $4.26 for the sad, small chicken tacos...

And without further adieu, I will tell you what I am most thankful for about these girls... (because you all know how mushy & thankful & blah blah blah I am...)

Jami -(Also known to me as "JLL"):  I am thankful that JLL's questions about iPhones & now her sons iPad keep me on my toes.  Because of all the help I giver her I would like either:

A) a blue shirt w/ a white Apple embroidered on the front

B) from this day forward only be referred to as 'your majesty the apple queen'.  
I am also thankful that when we had a strange woman suddenly appear next to us in the parking lot asking for cash that JLL also said she didn't have money on her.  (Seriously - it was dark & we were standing there talking & this woman came out of nowhere w/ a young kid & asked us for money.    I said no because I tend to always believe that people are lying & she was just using the kid to pull at our heart strings.  (She had no idea who she was messing w/ huh?!).  JLL was leery because she thought if we took out our wallets someone working w/ her could've been hiding & come out to snatch them from us.  Both were reasonable I think..) 

Tracey:  I am thankful that Tracey has such a sweet heart.  (Not that the other ones don't - hers is just the sweetest.)  I am thankful for her friendship w/ Gretchen because together they are funnier than they are separate.   I am thankful that she understands that Jake from the tv show Scandal is my boyfriend & not hers. 

Gretchen:  I am thankful that Gretchen is so cool & hip.  She is 2 years older than me, but in her pursuit to be 'young & cool' she finds all sorts of gems & passes them on to me.  She also has such a funny yet dry way of saying things that she keeps me laughing all the time.  When I mentioned a fight B-rad & I recently had she asked, "Was it about sex?" just as serious as she could be... (However she said 'sex' in the lowest possible voice.)

I am thankful that as we were talking about current events or people we know on Facebook we all had to do a quick 'look around' at the restaurant to make sure no one in the restaurant were those people or might know those people.  I am thankful when we talked about the 'Fifty Shades of Gray' movie coming out we all spoke very, VERY quietly (while laughing hysterically) & tried to figure out a place we could go see it where no one would know us.  (We settled on Cincinnati...)  

I am thankful we are all so vain it only took us 4 attempts to get a pic we could all agree which each looked 'ok' in...

The next day we went to my parents house for Thanksgiving lunch.  I have been wanting to make one of those mesh wreath thingies that are all the rage right now.  I know Rhonda is super crafty so I asked her if she knew how to make them... & she did....

I found a picture on Pinterest & because I have no creativity gene I bought almost exactly what it showed in the picture.  My wreath would also feature ribbons along w/ the mesh...

You can see how instrumental Rhonda was in helping me attach the mesh.

(and if you look closely behind my head you will see B-rad & mines wedding photo...)

Because Rhonda wasn't watching what I was doing well enough I ran out of mesh before I was all the way around the wreath form.  THEN she decided she needed to take a bigger roll in what I was doing as she helped me undo it ALL & start over....

After we attached the mesh we took 2 rolls of ribbon & ran it through the wreath.

Then we took the other 2 rolls of ribbon & cut them into like 6" pieces to tie on to let them dangle or curl or whatever.  We even enlisted moms help in cutting.

 THIS is what I envisioned making...

But like all great Pinterest projects it just didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted.  I like it, but I wish it was a bit more full.  Rhonda says I could add more to the middle, or maybe have used a smaller wreath form...