November Whiplash

Hmmm, I seem to be missing a month here.

Really??? A whole month? How can you misplace something like that?

Apparently it's not only possible, but I did it. November came and went in a whirlwind, and I'm not sure what happened. I even looked through my photos for it. Because even if I'm busy, I usually manage to take pictures along the way, which is almost like a diary of what happened. Except there isn't even picture evidence.

Well, ok. There's a *little* photo evidence. First, we know that Halloween happened. Here's the proof:

So that was Emma -- as Ariel the Mermaid -- and on her way to her preschool party. I guess we technically didn't buy her a costume this year. She does love her princess dress-up clothes, and has a little collection of them.... so we just used those for Halloween!

So for the Trunk-or-Treat at the church, she wanted to be Belle (Beauty and the Beast). But not only that, she wanted Alyssa to dress up with her, also as Belle....

(Excuse the half-closed eyes!)

We barely got our pumpkins carved. In fact, Todd didn't get his own pumpkin carved at all -- a first for him in a really LONG time.

Alyssa's Angry Bird pumpkin was really popular. Darcie's Japanese "love" symbol is also really cool, although fewer people recognized it. I'm sure you can tell who the Snow White pumpkin belongs to.

One milestone we hit is that yet another of our kids has officially become an adult. Yep, Alys hit the big 18-year-old mark. (Wow!!!)

My camera has no pictures from the beginning of November. More on my theory in a moment. Fast forward to Thanksgiving! When the sign-up sheet went around, I put our name down for having the missionaries for Thanksgiving Dinner. I was surprised that that didn't already have a commitment for the holiday. And my approach is that what goes around, comes around. Maybe, just maybe.... by feeding our local missionaries, my own missionary will be blessed, too.

Our guys are great, and they even helped with some leaf raking for us when were were between dinner and dessert.

We did have two tables again, but only about 13 people for the big meal. Seems like our big Huffaker Thanksgiving dinners are shrinking. Todd smoked our bird, and it turned out delicious, as usual!

(I seem to always exchange this taking-a-picture-of-you-taking-a-picture shot with Grandpa!)

We put up our Christmas tree that weekend, too. Missing our missionary, but feeling the joy of seeing Christmas through the eyes of a small child this year. I love seeing that magic again!

Yum! Eggnog!

So here's my theory. We've been busy at the store this fall. I know our sales level has been outstanding. We're thankful for that blessing. But what has changed? Not sure, if anything. But in an email from Cameron, he said that I'd mentioned that sales were slow (it must have been back in September, I think). He said after that, he began praying for us to be blessed with additional sales.

I know prayer works. I've seen it. But I'm thinking that the Lord must have a special place in His heart for the prayers of a missionary. Because I'm pretty sure that all our busy-ness has come because Cameron prayed it here!

I wonder what else I can ask him to pray for.......?