I love the Thanksgiving week, as the kids were calling it. There is so much anticipation, and most of it is about sleeping in and having nothing to do. This was our beautiful Monday. It was nice to get a chance to play with the little kids at the school playground as we waited to pick up the big girls for dance. We stopped at Arctic Circle for ice cream cones on the way for an after school snack.
It's not like me to have cute party favors, but I thought these went over well. I found these fun socks and stuffed them like Christmas stockings with candy, nail polish, and lotion. 
Wednesday was our first day of vacation. We met Aunt Judy and the cousins at Trafalga. Bo and Julia came home with us for a sleepover.
Thursday the kids worked hard to help me get the house clean and prepare the food. Mary helped me with the stuffing.
Bo surveying his mom's yummy raspberry jello salad. It was great to spend the day with Grandma Julia, and Judy, Jeremy and the cousins. Aunt Courtney and Uncle Joe had just returned to Utah, so we were happy that they were there with their girls.
Friday morning I was grateful to have time to exercise at the park. When I came home I was excited for the sunshine and weather warm enough to clean out the garage...probably my favorite thing to do on a holiday.
Friday evening Caitlin lost her first tooth. About an hour later she lost her second tooth.
Saturday the weather was perfect for driving out to storage to collect the Christmas decorations.
Those boxes are all full of junk I can't part with...old paper chains from a ten years ago, Christmas cards I never sent, ribbons I'll never use, preschool projects. I don't consider myself a pack rat. I am apparently too sentimental at Christmastime. I am most attached to the newspapers I use to wrap the ornaments. I love to read the dates and headlines and consider the boxes like time capsules. 
This is not so idyllic. Here we are at Smith's picking out the Christmas tree. Maybe someday we'll walk through the snowy woods. I reminded Ben about the year when we lived in Maine and Sam wanted to chop down our Christmas tree with the plastic axe from his Halloween fireman costume. A neighbor had offered us a scraggly tree he had acquired himself. There was nothing lovely about it, but the price was right. We took the tree into the small patch of woods behind our compound and shoved it into the snow. We let Sam take some swipes at it with his axe and miraculously it fell right to the ground. I always hoped that wasn't terribly dishonest, because it was memorable.
Saturday evening we celebrated again with leftovers. I tried to convince the kids to try my favorite turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce sandwhich but there were no takers. They were only interested in the thousand kinds of chips and dip and varieties of cranberry juice and soda cocktails. After dinner I was able to spend some time with the laundry and reorganized my closet. Everyone agreed that the weekend was too short.
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