The Fighter's

Ava, Kate and I constructed our first gingerbread house.  It was so much fun!  Took a few minutes to figure out how everything went together - we lost a few pieces of candies to my sweet tooth girls - but they were so proud of it when finished.  In between letting the sides of the house dry - we made chocolate covered pretzels - girls were on sprinkle duty.  See below what happens when you leave two girls alone with sprinkle jars...abundance of sprinkles!

Stockings are hung...   Both trees are up...including our girly candy ballerina tree (poor Doug:-))...   The village is up!  Doug and the girls surprised me with this village last year...and this year we have the perfect place to put it.  On top of the piano I grew up learning on (thanks Mom & Dad for passing this treasure on)! It is so much fun to sit and look at my village while I'm playing the piano.  I'm such a kid:-)   This is my favorite piece. My mom had (has) a church that resembles this.  I would spend hours as a kid around Christmas time staring at the church and imagining people going inside and having big extravagant Christmas parties after they sang Silent Night.     My new favorite chair (got it on sale at Pier One a few months ago - it's red:-)) with some fun snowmen!   Our nativity scene - given to us by Grammy when we were first married.  Also another favorite to put out each year.  So thankful for Love that came to us so many years ago on Christmas d

Decking our halls among...climbing into boxes, playing the piano, Christmas tree ice cream eating and dance party on the balcony and in front of stockings:-)  I could not have asked for more industrious or fun-filled elves.  Love this time of year!

We had such a fantastic time this year hosting turkey day!  There were 26 of us total.  I was a little bit nervous - but my family is so easy and so much fun...and my aunts and mom did most of the cooking (thankfully!) - so the weekend honestly went off without a hitch!  We have so much to be thankful for this year - two new beautiful babies born to our family, engagements, college graduations - and most importantly - each other.  My parents, aunts and uncles started this Thanksgiving tradition as far back as I can remember.   All of us have always taken turns traveling (sometimes as much as 12 hours) to be together for Thanksgiving.  As we have gotten older and families have grown - it's been a little bit harder to coordinate - but I am so thankful we are all still making efforts to carry on the tradition.  I'm sure my grandparents Julia and Bob would be thrilled to see us all still getting together. In my book nothing...absolutely nothing...beats celebrating and time with fam