Thanksgiving and getting ready for Christmas

This year we headed to Livermore to spend Thanksgiving with Jeff's family.  The girls sure do enjoy playing together and this year the boys had a jam session.  Huge thanks to Randy and Dee for a great thanksgiving meal and opening their home to us.

The weekend following Thanksgiving, we headed to Vegas for Jeff's Grandpa's 89th Birthday party.  Everyone was able to pull off the surprise and Grandpa was definitely overjoyed to see everyone.  

 

In order to pull off the surprise, we headed out to a Discovery Museum before the party.  I have fond memories of the Exploratorium in San Francisco as a kid.  Discovery or Children's musuems are like mini versions.  We have been to several of them including Ashland, Oregon and Orange County.  The kids enjoy all the fun activities, including working on this car.

When we arrived home from Vegas and it was time to start getting ready for the holidays.  We were lucky that some special elves hooked us with an amazing tree that took us a couple of nights to get decorated. There were definitely a few emotional moments while we worked on the tree and they didn't involve untangling Christmas lights.

We have also adopted the "Elf on the Shelf".  The kids look forward to waking up to discover where he has setup to watch for the day so he can report back to Santa at night.

Several years back when B was about Addy's age, we began celebrating the feast of St. Nicholas. Thank you to the Minton family for sharing this tradition with us as a way to start the holiday season and remember the origins of Santa Claus.  Each year the kids put their boots by the door and in the morning find a few special treats.  

 Here's to the most wonderful time of the year!