It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Wow, what a crazy holiday season we have had already. Our Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had 21 people eating dinner at our house, and the food was absolutely delicious. I love the food on Thanksgiving--turkey, potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, veggies, all of it. I sometimes think it would be awesome to have Thanksgiving dinner more often, but then of course it wouldn't be as special. Of those 21 people eating dinner with us, 15 of us slept here at our house. We were pretty crowded, but it was fun. Tyler loves playing with his cousins, and we love visiting with Dan's family; we always stay up too late playing games and visiting, and we did again.

Sunday morning, Tyler had a pretty nasty cold (which we even eventually went to the Dr. for, but yes just a bad cold, no infection) so he stayed home from church. When I came home, our company had just left, so Dan had pulled out all the Christmas stuff from the attic. We were both so excited to decorate this year. I think it might be because Tyler is really getting into it with us. Well finally yesterday, I put the last of the things away and got my house clean from all our company. I love it. The only thing left is the outside lights. We are finally going to do them. I have never had lights on my house at Christmas, not as a child, not with Dan. And I want them. I started this afternoon, but only got as far as what I could do with the ladder; I didn't want to climb out onto the roof without Dan here, and he is working today. He promised me we will get them up next week.


So, here are my pics of our decor. I obviously need some work when taking pictures without a flash, but you should get the idea. I want to point out Mom, under our tree in the family room (which used to be Grandma's and I kept thinking of her when I was stringing the lights on it) we have wrapped books. We are going to open a book each night starting tonight for a little countdown to Christmas. You see, my mom has given us a Christmas story book on Christmas Eve for years now. I think I was able to go from the 9th to the 24th, with some supplementing to fill in the 1st-8th. That would make 15 years? worth of books. What a neat tradition, and we are excited to use them this way.

Merry Christmas Everyone!