Yep ... Pretty Thankful!

What a fun weekend ... a fun looooong weekend!  Kind of hard to come back down to the reality of Monday after a sweet family time like that!  But I guess we have to have something like "normal" in order to enjoy the "special" of the holidays.

We started our holiday weekend off with the Great Pre-Holiday Toy Purge of 2010 ... do we know how to have fun, or what?!  The kids were home from school on Wednesday and so, being such a great mom, I put them to work.  But just for the morning.  After making our way through the house, top to bottom and side to side, we pulled out three bags of trash and 4 boxes of toys to give away.  Boo-yeah!  I love that feeling of less:  less to pick up, less to search through for the toy you really want, less to keep contained.  I was really pleased with the kids and their willingness to let go of some of their things.  We wrapped up the morning with a trip to McD's.  No ... we didn't get any Happy Meal toys! :)  In reality, we are only making room for the gifts to come ... but for right now, we feel tidy.

Then it was Thanksgiving Day ... gobble, gobble!  We started the morning with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ... which ended up being a lot of talk and a little itty-bit of parade.  Poor Ashley was still asking about 45 minutes into the broadcast, "When is it going to be the parade?"

"Sorry, Honey, this is it."  Lots of yakking, some reporter kept taking other people's coats (what was that all about?!?), a few glimpses of balloons and a photo shot or two of some famous person on a float.  Oh well ... I'll bide my time until the Rose Bowl Parade and enjoy it on HGTV ... no commercials and no silliness.  Just the parade!

Eventually we got dressed and headed to my brother's house.  His family hosted Thanksgiving in their new home ... new memories to make together!  The kids played.  Hard.  While we adults lounged, ate and Boggled.  Hard.

Somehow, we worked up an appetite and that was a good thing because we had a delicious spread to enjoy:  turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, cranberries, bread, wine, pie ... I'm stuffed just thinking about it again!  Thanks, Joshua & Jill, for hosting us in your lovely home!

Then it was the mad dash to Montrose that night.  The Goal:  get there before anyone fell asleep.  Mission Accomplished!  Maybe it was the contagious giggling from the backseat, maybe it was the pecan pie coursing through our veins, or maybe it was the Christmas music blaring from the iPod ... either way, we pulled to a stop just as Lydia's eyes began to droop.  Whew!

While in Montrose, we made our traditional trip to the tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree.  This is such a delightful tradition!  As you will see from the Smilebox ... we had a great time!  It was warm, the sun was shining and everyone had smiles on their faces.  A true Christmas miracle!

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Now our tree is standing in our family room waiting patiently for us to decorate it.  Tonight, we will be having my other favorite tradition:  The Christmas Transformation!  Christmas music, boxes of ornaments (each with it's own sweet memory), bins of decorations to transform our house, angel and snowflake dishes to eat from, lights twinkling inside and out.

Ooohhh, yeah ... I'm getting in the Christmas mood! :)