Thanksgiving and Getting Ready for Christmas!

I have been a slacker when it comes to blogging...we have had a busy couple of weeks and I really need to catch up. We had a beautiful Thanksgiving - it was small but we had a great dinner and wonderful company.

Here's Ray, Me, and MaKayla after the feast - we look contented and full!

Here's Patti, Kelli, and Marc - we laughed a lot and had a wonderful day!

This is the fun part...cleaning up after the feast! LOL

On Saturday we started taking down the Thanksgiving decorations and getting everything ready for Christmas. This is the wonderful Fall poster that all of my grandkids made for me - I wanted to take a picture of it for posterity. It was wonderful to see this every day when I got home from work. I am so blessed to have such amazing grandchildren!

Here is the Christmas Tree - Ray and I bought this tree a few years ago and we have loved it. I also love getting out the ornaments and putting them on the tree. Sometimes it is like finding old friends when I unwrap the ornaments that go on the tree. I have some ornaments that belonged to my grandma bates and some from Ray's mom some of the boxed have the original price tag and I know that they were purchased before I was born - these are old ornaments! I also have some crystal snowflakes that are swarofski my dear friends the Fraziers started me collecting these and I remember them each time I unwrap one. I have gold temple ornaments that I collected for years and then some special ones from my children. Like I said they are like old friends and they bring wonderful memories as I decorate the tree.

This is one of the ornaments that belonged to my grandma - it still sparkles after all of these years! I hope you are all getting ready for this amazing season and finding great joy in making your houses sparkle with the holiday spirit. I'm looking forward to the sparkle in my grandchildren's eyes as they wait for Santa. I love that they know all of the individuals in the nativity and that they understand that we are celebrating Jesus' birthday. I hope that the spirit of Christmas fills your hearts and your homes!

Merry Christmas!