First, I have to post about Thanksgiving. I hosted this year and invited my family and Brian's family. I had it all planned out - we were going to do a craft at 11:00, eat at 12:00, play games, eat, play some more games, and eat left overs. Basically, we were going to eat all day! Yeah! And guess what, my planning worked out and everyone had a great time.
In order to fit 13 people around the table, we added one of my parent's large folding tables to our table - making it a "L" shape. I put my grandmother's table cloth and table runner on the tables, plus some fake leaves for decoration and vases with fake flowers (all from the dollar store, go me). On the entry table, I had Leah write on a large, black foam board the Bible verse Psalm 100:4 ("Enter His gates with Thanksgiving and into His courts with praise...) and made a "Thankful Tree" out of small branches. Everyone wrote on a cut out leaf what they were thankful for and hung it on the tree. Both the poster and the tree look so good, I am leaving them up for a bit longer (even though we have moved onto Christmas decorations).
The Pfeiffers (Al, Karla, Tamara) and the Tzaperas' (Michael and Sara) arrived around 10:00 and helped get everything together before more people arrived at 11:00. Then we started our Turkey Place Mat craft. Everyone did a great job creating their place mats! I had the pieces already cut for the turkeys (head, body and feathers) for people to put together. They could then decorate their feathers and turkeys however they wanted. It is always so neat to see how different each turkey turns out. It just shows how everyone in one family is different, but we can all still get along and love each other!
Lunch was ready by 12:00 and everyone sat down to eat! We had the craft table turned into the buffet table where everyone could help themselves to all the food. During the meal, I had a conversation bowl. Everyone took turns picking out a conversation starter and we all answered the questions (ex: "What circus act would you perform if you worked at the circus?). That was a lot of fun!
After cleaning up, we enjoyed our desserts before several people headed off to my parent's house to watch football and Lydia headed off to take a nap. Karla, my mom, Thomas, Sara, Michael and I stayed behind to play games. We played two rounds of Goop and one game of Settlers. The football-watchers returned (yeah, the Cowboys won!) and we snacked some more. Some people made their dinners of left over turkey on sandwiches and then we played one game of Apples to Apples.
My mom helped me clean up and then the Dunlaps headed off. Many of the Pfeiffers were tired, but Brian and I stayed up to watch a movie. Lydia slept on the floor in our room, giving her room up to the Pfeiffers. All in all, it was a great day and I had a great time hosting both families.
The day after Thanksgiving, I was ready to start celebrating Christmas! I turned the clock to play Christmas music and had my Pandora station set to the Josh Groban Christmas station. The Pfeiffers headed out after Lydia went down for a nap. After Lydia's nap, we decided to head over to Six Flags to take in their Christmas celebrations. Lydia was able to meet Santa and sit on his lap - she was so excited! We then caught the Majesty of Christmas show - it was really, really good! Lydia and Brian enjoyed looking at all the lights around the park.
Saturday, Brian went out to get our Christmas tree. Lydia was excited to put up her pink Christmas tree in her room and decorate it with her own ornaments. She loved hanging the ornaments on the big tree, too. Brian spent the rest of the afternoon outside putting up Christmas lights on the front of the house. He is an awesome Christmas light-hanger-upper!
Today marked the first day of December! And it also marks the end of an awesome vacation. Brian and I are not ready to head back to work tomorrow. I need to get back into my routine - I have 17 piano students to teach this week, a Bible lesson on Tuesday and a music lesson on Wednesday! But, only three more weeks before Christmas break!
We took our Family Photos this afternoon (Leah's a great photographer) and I have my Christmas cards ordered and pictures ordered to hang up in the living room. Here's a few photos:
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