Since we were hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year....I wanted to get the tree up and the house decorated early. We got a new pre-lit tree (soooo much easier and now Doug's not driven to drink as he often was after wrestling with our old tree). The kids helped and we all enjoyed looking at the ornaments before hanging them up. My mom gave me quite a few ornaments that I made when I was little....I have some stained glass (plastic) ones I painted, one of the fancy styrofoam ball/sequin/straight pin ornaments I made at some point...and lots of ornaments I didn't make but remember hanging up when I was a little girl including my favorite....the sprinkly orange-gold/green ice cream cones.


It's amazing how these small things can bring back so many memories. Each year Doug and I give the kids an ornament representing something special they did that year. Grandma Via gives them one also...she hides it on her tree and they enjoy trying to find the one that belongs to them. One day I'll pack these up and send them off with Avery and Weston to hang on their own trees...but for today...I'll just be thankful for a tree full of many happy memories.

Avery with one of her many horse ornaments...she's definitely my horse girl!!

For some reason Weston thought he needed to come fully protected to decorate the tree...complete with eye safety goggles and a bandana to protect his neck???

My sweet Christmas elf!!

We had a great time with both families enjoying Thanksgiving at our house. The fun part was each mom bringing her "special recipe"...a tradition from each side of the family we were able to share together. We had Barb's homemade noodles...my mom's stuffing and corn casserole, Aunt Beverely's green bean casserole (although according to Barrett there weren't enough green beans and too much "other stuff" in there)...and some new favorites including Aunt Karen's yummy tomato/artichoke heart salad and of course my pumpkin fudge. The girls played upstairs and get themselves busy doing girlie things...the boys....well they did this......

The kids enjoyed some time at the park thanks so the great weather, the grown-ups enjoyed some time visiting...we all enjoyed way to much really good food...and I enjoyed having lots of help in the kitchen and leaving for Canton that night knowing my dishes were done and Doug had lots of left-overs packed tightly into the fridge.
After the meal, Grandma Via brought out the santa hats and tried to line us all up for a picture. Although it looks like Uncle Stan is trying to push us all down the stairs, we did finally get organized and take some really cute pictures.