This Weekend...

We counted our blessings.  

     In what I hope will become a family tradition, we set out a thankful bucket the week before Thanksgiving with a bunch of slips of paper next to it.  Throughout the week, we wrote down or drew pictures of different things we are thankful for and then dumped it out and looked at them all Thanksgiving morning.  My favorites were some of the pictures Kiwi had drawn and put in without my even knowing about them.  

 You can bet this little guy is at the top of my list.  

 Kiwi with a picture she had drawn of her brothers.

Ate lots of fabulous food.

And then came back and ate some more.

      Thanksgiving this year was held at Mike's parents house and his mom cooked all TWENTY of us a fabulous meal.  Our job was to bring some appetizers (I know, I have it easy).  I did try a new recipe for a cranberry/jalapeno dip which was most delicious if I do say so myself.  The kids contributed by making these cute little candy turkeys.  

Had lots of cousin (and family) time.

     Mike's aunt, uncle, and three daughters came up from Utah for Thanksgiving.  We lived in an apartment in their basement for the first two and a half years of our marriage so they have a special place in my heart.  It was so fun to see them and to watch the girls, now all grown up and beautiful, interacting with my kids.  Little Man and Kiwi fell in love with all three of them and now want to know when we can go to Utah to visit.  

     My aunt, uncle, and five cousins were up from Texas and other cousins were here from California and Utah so there was lots of family fun going on in the D family also.  We celebrated some birthdays, some of us girls went to the incredibly cheesy (to the point of laughing out loud throughout the movie) Breaking Dawn, had a cousin game night, went out to eat, and went to the temple with my cousin Cole who is leaving for a mission to England next month.  

                         Little Man and Lexi playing the new dance game on the Kinect.  We also broke this out      at the grown up cousin game night, but because I would not appreciate pictures of my dancing posted, I will refrain from putting those up.  It was quite entertaining though and we had a lot of fun.  

 Cousins.  Katie was Kiwi's age when I first started dating Mike and look at her now.  Man, I am getting old!

 Stina, Kim, and Katie with my three kids.  Mason is thrilled.  

We broke out the Christmas decorations.

      Although not a fan of before Thanksgiving holiday celebrations (especially by stores who seem to have completely commercialized Christmas and break out the candy canes and Christmas toys before most kids have even made a dent in their Halloween candy...but that would be a whole other post entirely), once the turkey is cut it is game on for the holidays around here.

     

So, this picture looks totally posed...because it is.  She did scoot the bin over and she was staring at Santa all by herself, but my the time I got the camera she was climbing down.  So, I made her get back up to try to capture the moment.  She says this is her favorite of all the decorations.  


        Friday morning we put up all the Christmas decorations except for our tree.  Friday afternoon, the kids stayed home with babysitters (thank you Jen and Allison!) while we went to the temple and out to eat with some family members.
        As we were turning into our neighborhood on the way home, Mike and I were chatting and enjoying our last few minutes of uninterrupted conversation, when suddenly I looked up and there it was.  After a sharp intake of breath, I let out a squeal which had Mike looking over and asking me what was the matter.  And so, I told him what I had seen.  THE FIRST CHRISTMAS LIGHTS OF THE SEASON (mental note:  taper the reaction some next year as to not cause a car accident).
       So even though it was nearing bed time when we got home, I insisted on piling the family in the car and going on a Christmas light drive.  Little Man counted fifty houses in our big neighborhood.  The next morning, Mike was up on the ladder hanging out lights.  When the kids and I went out to the porch to see how it was going, Little Man and Kiwi said, "Thank you Daddy."  To which he replied, "I couldn't disappoint my kids."  Except for he wasn't looking at his kids, he was looking at his wife.  Me.  What can I say?  I love Christmas lights.

Happy start of Holidays!