Thanksgiving Weekend

Our Thanksgiving weekend was busy and filled with great family memories.

Full of gratitude for my own little (big) family . . . 

And for my parents, siblings and their children . . .  

The boys kept the tradition alive by starting off Thanksgiving with an early morning Turkey Trot 5K.  Ryan is still the one to beat.

And once again, I forced the kids to pose by the turkey before heading to my parents’ for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Love all of the cute artwork and crafts that come home from school during the holidays.  Mia has discovered a love for drawing.  She spends most of the day drawing or coloring pictures.  This stage of drawing is always my favorite.  Look at her cute pilgrims and Indians.  Griffin is doing so well in 1st grade and loves to read and write.  And is thankful for his ‘loveing family.'

Feasting with my family.

My grandma always had Santa come to her house on Christmas Eve and surprise her grandchildren and now that she is now gone, my mom decided it was time for her to start the tradition with her grandkids.  She did some calling around and found out that the ‘Real’ Santa and Mrs. Claus were available to drop by for a visit.  I’m not sure who enjoyed this more--my mom or the kids.

The grandkids didn’t know Santa was coming and were so surprised when Santa walked in the house with his bells a jingling and a few “ho, ho, ho!”s  Morgan couldn’t stop giggling and Mia and Griffin just couldn’t believe he was really there.  We sang a few Christmas songs with Santa and then he had each one sit on his lap as he looked through his notebook of 'Naughty and Nice' lists that his elves had put together for him.

We ended the evening with Santa sharing a Christmas story that tied in the true meaning of Christmas.  It was the perfect way to end our Thanksgiving weekend and begin the holiday season.

And now it’s time to pull out all of those Christmas bins and get the house ready for the Christmas season.  Mia can hardly wait.  She’s already been digging through bins in the storage room and bringing up several things each day that I find randomly placed throughout the home.  My favorite was finding  my “N-O-E-L” blocks set up on a bookshelf out of order, “O-L-E-N”.

Wishing you all more “OLEN” in your holiday season!