With Thanksgiving, visiting family, and lots of business for my photography...I almost forgot about blogging! Well, almost! We have been super busy with family, visits from friends, and taking tons of people's Christmas card photos. But, things are only speeding up around here!!
We had the most wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed a relaxing weekend with family and friends. It was great to spend time with those we don't get to see very often. My mom, aunts, and grandmother really outdid themselves this year (as always!). We ate so much yummy food and enjoyed some wonderful time together.
Here is a shot of almost everyone except Jay and I during Thanksgiving! My mom does a wonderful job of getting 19 people around the table together...she doesn't do the "kids table" thing. We all sit together at the same time to laugh and share about the amazing blessings God has lavished on us throughout the year.
The kids were on the end that I couldn't get in the photo. They loved all the wonderful food and yes, even the kids eat off the fine china and have silver goblets to drink out of. My mom does it all the way...for everyone no matter how young! She's amazing!
Here are my girls enjoying some yummy food together!
Each year since I can remember, my mom has had us write our blessings from the year that we are most thankful for on our fine tablecloth. We are on our second one! We do it in Sharpies so that it can be washed and saved year to year. It is so awesome to look back every year at what everyone was thankful for. It was neat to see what my girls wrote this year.
Virginia's says "That we got to eat together". What a great tradition! My mom is sooo Martha Stewart...prior prison sentence!
Here are the kiddos! They had a blast playing together and we never even saw them most of the time because they were having such fun. The adults were far louder than the kids!
This is my sister Holly, me, and Leslie...the three girls!
Clean up is my FAVORITE part of Thanksgiving...no really! We have another tradition that us girls (my sisters, cousin Peyton, and I) and Jay always clean up after the big dinner. We crank up the Christmas music in the kitchen and laugh so hard I usually cry! This year was no exception! We danced together, sang at the top of our lungs, impersonated Bing Crosby and maybe washed some dishes! It's my favorite time.
No visit to Sassy and Pal's house would be complete without the animals. We got out the horses, donkey, miniature horse Noah (here with Anli) and the 8 dogs! All the kids love to run and play on the 11 acres that my parent's have...it's a dream come true there.
There were lots of hugs and sleepy kids at the end of the day. 
This year was my grandmother's first Thanksgiving without my grandfather who went to be with Jesus last December. It was hard on us all, but we celebrated knowing what a feast he was having with the King of Kings this Thanksgiving. She and I are so close...I'm named for her. She is an amazing women of God...and I just adore her!
When we got home, on Sunday we did our traditional decorating of the trees at our apartment. This year we did something different. Since most of our ornaments, decoration, etc. were in storage and wouldn't fit into our apartment, we decided to do something I have wanted to do for years. We did a Chrismon Tree.
A Chrismon tree is tree decorated with the names of Christ all over them. The colors stay with gold, white and silver to represent the royalty and purity of Christ. The girls made the Chrismons the week before and they each made about 10 so that we could have them all over the tree.
To begin Advent this Sunday, each night leading up to Christmas we will take one of those names of Christ and read the verses about that name. It will help us to focus on the person of Christ whom this season is all about! It turned out amazing and will now be a part of our Christmas decorating from now on!
The finished product was gorgeous...you should see it at night when it sparkles from all the glitter and pearls! Most of all...we can't pass the tree without seeing a name of Jesus. It really keeps Him as the focal point of our whole house!
We did do a traditional tree with all the cute homemade and special ornaments in the girls room. We didn't want to leave off all those wonderful things the girls have made and the ones given to us by family and friends. So, we bought a smaller tree for the girls to decorate themselves to stay in their room. We had fun talking about the ornaments they made in years past.
We pray that your Thanksgiving and Christmas was and is focused on Jesus. Don't get bogged down in gift buying, decorating, and shopping so that you miss the glorious time of the year we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We are excited about the time of Advent that we will begin this Sunday in our home. Start a new Christ centered tradition this year!
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