Dear Friend,

Our family wishes you joy and blessings this season. We hope you'll have a well-deserved break, and return to work and school refreshed, renewed, and inspired for the new year.

If you missed getting a copy of the 11 Things a Paragraph Can Do mini-poster, you may still download it from the Everyday Education site. 

In honor of the holiday, I've shared another favorite family recipe below (we prefer it to pumpkin pie). This is my oldest son's favorite recipe, and he made it yesterday in celebration of our 30th anniversary. I can hardly believe we've been married that long (seems just yesterday when we thought the people celebrating 25th anniversaries were pretty old!). Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

As you prepare for the holidays, please consider your local nursing homes. Many residents have few family or friends left to visit, and it can be a lonely time. My grandmother's nursing home has an angel tree so that each resident can request small gifts. Most residents ask for very practical things--a sweatshirt, slippers, lotion, sugar-free snacks, and that sort of thing. This year, there were angels left over, and the nurses said they'd be grateful for boxes of tissues or small tubes of hand cream so they could provide something for each resident. It's just one small, simple way to share kindness and blessings with others.

During the next couple of weeks, we'll be performing a variety of maintenance tasks on the Everyday Education server and website. It will be faster and better when we finish, but during the process, there may be a bit of "construction dust." If you stop by and the site is down, don't worry-- it will be back very quickly. 

Wishing you joy and abundant blessings,

Janice Campbell
http://www.Everyday-Education.com
Excellence in Literature

Pumpkin Pie Cake

1 lg. can solid pack pumpkin
4 eggs beaten
1 c. evaporated milk
1-1/2 c. sugar
2-1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice OR 2 tsp. each cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp. ground cloves 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). 
Mix all ingredients and spread in a 9" x 13" (spray it with non-stick spray or oil, first). 
Sprinkle one dry yellow cake mix evenly over the top.
Melt 1.5 sticks of butter and pour over the cake mix (or slice thin and lay slices over mix).
Bake 50-60 minutes at 350. Cake is done when top is nicely browned. 
Freezes well. 

P.S. I realize this isn't as nutritious as our Thanksgiving recipe (and I'm not even too embarrassed that it involves a cake mix and canned stuff), but I'm pretty sure we've passed the statute of limitations for 2011 calories;-). Enjoy!