We started by celebrating Thanksgiving with Mike's side of the family last weekend. We always have a big family meal with lots of extended family the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The weather was nice, so we were able to eat outside and enjoy the fall afternoon with lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.
The boys played football and Anna Grace loved "helping" to feed the newest baby cousin.
Then on Thursday, we celebrated Thanksgiving again with my side of the family.
Even though we did not have a lot of extended family come to my mom's house, we still had a huge spread of food. This is my mom doing her "Paula Dean" pose with all of the food that she prepared.
After we ate, my mom and I took a walk with the littlest grand kids before we tackled the dishes.
I stayed at my moms while Mike took the kids home so that she and I could brave the after-Thanksgiving sales. We woke up at 2:45 in the morning to start our shopping. My goal was to get to Toys R Us before the items that I needed would go on sale at 5:00 am, but neither of my brothers believed that my mom would actually get out of bed and get ready in time for us to make it. She surprised everyone by getting up even before my alarm went off! I had a lot of fun pretending to do stretches and planning our strategy while she finished getting ready to go.
Today we made our annual trip to the tree farm to get our Christmas tree. We have so many fun family memories and stories from our tree farm trips. One year it was frigidly cold and snowing and the wind was blowing so hard that we jumped out the car and just pointed to a tree without really even looking to see if it was good tree or not. Another year, someone stole our tree after the tractor dropped it off by the cars and the tree we ended up with had a nest of baby spiders that crawled all over our ceilings!
This year, our trip was not quite as eventful and we brought home a beautiful tree.
We spent the evening putting on the lights and decorations.
As usual, most of the ornaments ended up on one or two branches on the bottom of the tree (thanks to little helpers) so I had to redecorate while the kids ate their supper.
We have lots of parties and other events planned for the coming weeks, so I am going to have to make it a priority to enjoy the Christmas season and take the time to remember the true meaning of Christmas. It is so easy to let these days rush by without taking the time to stop and reflect on God's blessings and appreciate the life that He has given us.
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