More autumn fun

What a wonderful weekend. We went to a local food festival, which wasn't as good as last year, unfortunately. But it was alright. And we had some wonderful "loaded baked potato soup." I must find a comparable recipe!

After that we went to a harvest festival at a local Christian camp. We went last year and it was so much fun. They have an insane hayride through their maple sugar bush. The hills are insane, and at one point the tractor got stuck two thirds of the way up a huge one. We all had such a great time. The kids thought it was great fun to be stuck and to be bumping over hill and dale. We saw some wild turkeys in a field and everything. The games were such fun, and the kids had an absolute blast. I picked up some corn stalks to decorate the house, and a bale of straw to (duh) put under and around our strawberry plants.

Doing things like this makes me feel deliriously happy. It is so much fun to celebrate my favourite season with my family. Given that for many years we never knew if we'd ever have children, to be able to share this with them is such a huge blessing.

Another blessing is my husband, who decided that we should have his parents come by Saturday night so that we could go out for dinner. It's great to celebrate Autumn with the kids, but it's also wonderful to be just the two of us. So we tried a new place downtown. One that is all about local, seasonal foods. It was *okay.* Not stellar, but it wasn't terrible. The salad was absolutely wonderful, however. I would have never thought to put these ingredients together, but it was made with tender greens, dried cranberries, toasted pine nuts, feta and a maple balsamic dressing that was actually tangy rather than oily. It was so good. Feta and maple/balsamic would never have crossed my mind. Now to work on recreating the salad at home. Yum!

I cannot believe it's Thanksgiving in a week. I ordered a "small" turkey. Was told that it would be between 11 and 15lbs or so. Wow. For 2 adults and 2 little kids. We'll feast on leftovers! Not sure what we'll have for dessert, as I am the only real fan of pumpkin pie in the house (and I bought a piece for myself at the Harvest Festival and enjoyed it last night). Maybe cheesecake? We'll see.