Here comes Santa Claus...

Thanksgiving gave us lots to be thankful for this year!  Gigi came to stay with us for a while and joined us for the big dinner.  Kaity and Abe hosted with a super yummy deep fried bird, mashed potatoes ala Mom Irwin and the traditional green bean casserole.  Gigi made her cornbread stuffing, and we brought roasted veggies and a little cocktail (apple cider & spiced rum = yum!)  We were all stuffed...which is how a good Thanksgiving should end.

At the Butterfly Pavilion with Gigi

And how do you follow a good Thanksgiving?  With Black Friday of course!  Well... we didn't exactly shop it... Kaity, Abe and I worked it.  Gigi had to leave that morning for California, and Josh, Maggie and the boys went for a hike in the morning and hung out at home, but Kaity, Abe and I worked at Tommy Hilfiger in Loveland from 11a.m. to 11p.m.  Kaity was our boss for the day.  She did a very good job overall.  It was a very long day though, and we almost caught a shoplifter which was fun drama to brighten our afternoon.

And now... on to celebrating Christmas!  No sign of snow, but the Christmas carols are playing in the house and there are lots of lights up around the neighborhood, including on The Redmore house!  The lights are just Van's favorite part of the whole season, I think.  Van and I strung some popcorn garland for our kid's tree.  He was very good at keeping the popcorn from splitting and crumbling while threading the kernels.  Now we just needed the tree to put 'em on!

We got our kid's tree up in Winter Park with our friends, The Bayons.  We'd never gotten a tree this way before - we usually just go to the green houses (which we'll still do for our big tree), but this was so much fun!  We got our permit downtown Winter Park, then drove out to Arapaho National Forest and hiked back a little ways in search of a little tree just for Wes & Van.  Maggie was LOVING the snow!  The weather was gorgeous, it was so much fun tree hunting with our friends and we came home with a super cute little tree to put downstairs for the boys to decorate.

After we got home and got our new "Charlie Brown" tree lit and decorated a bit it was time for the boys' early present from me and Josh.  Needless to say, they were pretty stoked.  Christmas pajamas, a book for each of them ("Polar Express" and "Bear Stays Up for Christmas") and a few assorted chocolate treats made their night, and their excitement made Mom and Dad's weekend.  We couldn't ask for a better way to start off the holiday season!