Celebrations

Last Thursday we drove the short distance to Windsor, Ontario, Canada to celebrate our son Steve's 57th birthday.  We were all anxious to go over the new Gordy Howe International Bridge that opened in July.  It was a cloudy, rainy afternoon so the photo wasn't the greatest taken through the car windshield.

The Cook's Shop, an Italian Restaurant, was our destination.  It was our second visit.  The kids took us there for our 40th wedding anniversary in 2006.  It's located downtown Windsor in the former VMY Hotel building [which now consists of commercial tenants and residential apartments]. The restaurant, which opened in 1980, is located in the lower floor of the building.

~ One of two entrances to the restaurant ~

This was our table for six - Steve, Sharon, Brooke, Dominic, Jerry and Me.   Our reservations were for 5:30 p.m.  The restaurant was filled when we left, which was surprising for a weeknight.

Our meal began with a delicious complimentary petite loaf of bread [made in-house]. The photo below is from their website.  Our loaf came with a dish of tomato selsa [chopped tomatoes, basil and balsamic glaze] instead of butter.  

Steve ordered Calamari as an appetizer for our table.   Previously, I've only had batter fried calamari but they char-grilled theirs.  Dominic and I were the only two who liked it prepared that way.  

Jerry and I ordered Lasagna, Brooke, Dominic and Steve ordered Shrimp Linguine, and Sharon got Gnocchi.    Everything was very good.

We came back to our house through the Windsor-Detroit tunnel and Steve opened his gifts. He was very pleased with the replica of The Ark of the Covenant.

Around noon on Friday we left for Zeeland to visit Jeremy and family. Right before our departure the mailman delivered a new cookbook I ordered.  I've been following Mrs. Lacy's Magnolia House Tea Room [restaurant] on Facebook and Instagram where Faye Schulz [the owner] provides amazing demo reels.  I read the cookbook all the way to Zeeland and it didn't disappoint.  There are several recipes I want to try.

On Saturday I went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for her Baked Potato Soup and Macaroni and Cheese for our dinner that night.  Everyone liked it.

Ellie and Landon had a Halloween Party to attend that evening.  Ellie was Clark Kent/Superman and I'm not sure who/what Landon was because he didn't put his costume on before they left home.

Unfortunately, it started raining just before it was time for children to go trick-or-treating. Jeremy and Jerry sat underneath the overhang on their front porch distributing candy while Samantha and I stayed indoors.

We went to church with them on Sunday morning [Ridge Point Community Church in Holland] and then headed back home.  

Once home, it was time to take down the Halloween banner and put up the Thanksgiving one, which will be here before we know it.

We enjoyed the Baked Potato Soup so much I made another pot when we got home.  The recipe is very similar to the Bennigan's copycat recipe that I already had.

So now we begin the month of November...

A New Tea Venue and A Birthday Gift

While scrolling through Facebook a few days ago, I came across a new tea venue in the nearby city of Troy.  Tea venues seem to be closing these days instead of opening, so I was excited to see their Facebook ad.  For local readers the venue is called Fox and Hounds Pastry Den.  It appears to be more of a coffee shop and bakery than tearoom but they do serve Afternoon Tea by reservation.  I'm anxious to check it out and will report back.

[Photo from their Website]

On another subject, my son, Steve, celebrated a birthday yesterday.  We will be celebrating tomorrow and I wanted to share a unique gift wrapping idea I saw online.  We always give him money [to feed his baseball card collecting hobby], but this way of giving money is much nicer than just putting money inside a card.

I ordered a shadowbox picture frame from Amazon and asked my daughter-in-law what Steve's two favorite candies are.  Fortunately it's Halloween time so the miniature candy bars were readily available.

~ The finished project ~

Pastor Appreciation is also the month of October and since Steve is our Pastor, we always give him money for that too.  Thanks to my neighbor I became aware of replicas of the Ark of the Covenant, and thought he would appreciate one in addition to a monetary gift.  Amazon had several choices to choose from and this is the one I got.  I love that it has the three elements that were in the original Ark of the Covenant recorded in the Bible - Manna, the 10 Commandments and Aaron's budding staff.

Lastly, do any of you have AOL as your e-mail provider?   I've had AOL for years and it's always been easy to send photos from my i-Phone to myself in an e-mail and open them on my desktop.  Then I download them to my harddrive so I can insert them in blog posts.  WELL... I got a notification that AOL has made some changes [supposedly improved upgrades] and the procedure I used to use doesn't work anymore.  I spent considerable time this morning trying to figure out a way to get these photos from my phone to my desktop.  Not sure exactly what I did to finally get them but it's going to be a nightmare to retrieve photos from my phone to my desktop going forward unless someone who's more tech savvy than me can explain how to do it.  Why are they always changing things that worked perfectly!!!  

October Happenings

My church held its annual Harvest Festival last Saturday.   I worked so couldn't go but it was a big success.  I was hoping to share pictures but only videos are available.  I tried to take a screen shot from one of the videos to no avail.  Will have to get help from my granddaughter and add them to this post later. 

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Southeast Michigan - 84 degrees and sunny.  Could this be our Indian Summer?  We decided to enjoy the day by going to Blake's Cider Mill in Armada.  I took the photo below while riding along the expressway to show how the trees are changing colors.  They're not at their peek yet but will be soon.  Maple trees seem to change first and are very vibrant.

Along the way we passed some pumpkin patches and stopped for a picture by one.  Michigan consistently ranks in the top five states nationwide for pumpkin production.

We also passed a couple of Christmas tree farms.  We haven't bought a real Christmas tree for several years.  A standard 6 ft. real Christmas tree ranges between $80 to $100.  Only 17% of households choose real trees nowadays.  I'm with the 83% who decorates an artificial tree. 
 

We finally arrived at Blake's Cider Mill

Lots of school buses in the parking lot for children's field trips.

Hubby at the entrance.

We bought a half gallon of cider, two apple fritters and a jar of pumpkin butter.  The bees were wanting us to share with them, so we didn't tarry in the patio area.  We brought it home to enjoy.

During a stop at Kroger's this morning I finally found their limited edition Pumpkin Harvest black tea and Pumpkin Sandwich cookies.  I bought the last boxes of each.  The cookies were good, but I didn't care for the tea.  My hubby said he'd drink it.

My hubby and I have begun watching the House of David drama series on Prime TV.  We've only seen three episodes so far but I was surprised to see tea depicted in the scene with Samuel [episode 3].  The time period is the 11th century BC long before tea was cultivated or consumed in the Middle East.  Hmmm... some writer didn't do their research very well but we are enjoying the series.

[Internet Photo]

Eight Days Into October

Fall is in the air... the days are cooler, nighttime comes earlier, and the trees are turning beautiful colors.   I'm enjoying October even though I hated to say goodbye to summer.

I'm enjoying decorating the house for the season...

I don't remember where I bought these figurines several years ago, but they're an annual favorite.

A few years ago when my teacup collecting started getting maxed out, I decided to switch to black teacups only.  I store them in a tote and yesterday decided to bring them out to arrange on the tea cart.  About halfway through I asked myself, "What were you thinking?".   It was a bit of a chore, but fun getting "reacquainted" again.  

I've started thinking about fall foods too, thanks to the recent tea that focused on pumpkins.  I saw online that Kroger was carrying a limited edition pumpkin ice cream.  After four stores I finally found a pint.  That's all the manager said he had left.  It was worth the search.  If you have a Kroger store near you, look for it.  They also have a limited edition Pumpkin Spice tea that I haven't been able to locate yet.

A trip to the Cider Mill is next on my list of things to do.   My daughter-in-law's family has a yearly tradition of going apple picking together in fall and they went last week.  

Samantha [in the burgundy top] with her mom [on the right] and three sisters and one sister-in-law.

Making memories...

~ Samantha's brother and her little nephew - the youngest of the clan ~

~ Grandson Landon [right] with two cousins ~

~ Granddaughter Ellie [far left] with her maternal grandma and three cousins ~

What a fun tradition!  The "matriarch" [Sam's mom] posted the pics on Facebook and I copied them for this post. [Thanks, Roxanne.] Seeing the apples makes me wish I had a glass of apple cider right now!  Maybe I'll make myself a cup of Apple Cinnamon tea instead.

Hope you are enjoying the beginning of October.
 

2026 Ladies' Fall Tea

As promised, here are pictures from the 2026 Ladies' Fall Tea at church.  It was held last Saturday, September 26, 2026 on a picture perfect day weatherwise.

Good friends Lori and Donna, helped me set-up on Thursday afternoon after I got off work.  It was a simplier tablescape, but made set-up and tear-down much easier.  The theme was Fall Homecoming Harvest, and the emphasis was on pumpkins.

Attendance was less that previous teas [45] and I'm seriously considering revamping the structure.  It might be time for a change.

~ Seating Board ~

~ Place Setting ~

 Donna, who stepped in to be my right-hand helper that day.

Pamela's Catering provided the tea meal again, and as always it was delicious.

I took this picture before the top plate of miniature quiches were added to the three-tiered servers.

Servers from Pamela's Catering, pictured with the dessert plates.

Granddaughter, Brooke, and her boyfriend's mom and grandmother.

~ Daughter-in-law, Sharon, and Daughter, Lori ~

I shared some brief trivia about pumpkins... They're a significant specialty crop in Michigan, consistently ranking in the top five states nationwide for pumpkin production and bringing in over $13 million annually for Michigan farmers.

I discovered when doing my research that botanically speaking, pumpkins are actually a fruit - and to be specific a berry!  Nutritionists consider it a vegetable for culinary purposes.  From a culinary perspective they are extremely versatile and are the main ingredient in numerous recipes from breads, to cakes, pies, cookies and other delicious desserts, and soups and casseroles.  I put 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree in my oatmeal every morning while it's cooking.  They're very nutritious containing Beta-carotene [which converts to vitamin A], Vitamin C, potassium, as well as dietary fiber and other essential minerals.  In an of itself, pumpkin is fat free.

One lady at the tea said she makes pumpkin cannolis every Thanksgiving and they're delicious.  I looked up a recipe online when I got home and am very anxious to try them.

Below is one inspirational thought I shared to close my talk that I found online.

With that, the 2026 Ladies' Fall Tea was in the books.  But before I close this post and September ends, I want to share some pics from my grandaughter Isabella's 21st birthday and my son Jeremy's 47th birthday yesterday [September 29th].  How special that they share birthdays.