We Saw Santa

We made our annual pilgrimage to the mall to see Santa. As we drove I showed Jack pictures of Santa and explained that we were going to see Santa. We get inside and the whole Santa Village area trumped Santa. There were balloons people. Balloons are more important than anything. The best I could get him to do is stand beside Santa. I'll take it and my $15 dollar picture. The mall did good this year. He looks like Santa. We have seen some scary looking Santas in the past.

I also wanted to show a more colorful version of our tree this year. I love (and I mean truly love) all of these ornaments. They have meaning and usually a story behind them. My sister and I have been exchanging ornaments for around 15 years so 30 of the ornaments are from that exchange. 

Tomorrow, two of my friends and I are heading north to spend the night in Little Rock. Last year we went to St. Louis, but with money being tight, we are keeping our girls trip a lot more low key. We are going to do a little shopping and probably a lot of eating. The laughs will be a plenty and I'm so looking forward to a night out. Mama needs it!

Have a great weekend!

Magic of a Christmas Tree

There is just something about a Christmas tree. The lights. The ornaments. 

This year we went with a big full tree. It is so pretty. I really need to take a few pictures with the lights on so you can see the beautiful ornaments that mean so much to my family. You may notice the Santa hat as our tree topper. Well, our usual tree topper wouldn't fit (unless we wanted to take the ceiling down) so I threw that hat up there as kind of a joke. It landed perfectly and there it has stayed. 

Last year this happened.

This year things are going pretty good with the tree. After a few days of it being up I think the thrill of touching the ornaments is gone. Yesterday, when I picked Jack up from daycare I noticed that one of the centers was a 3 foot tree that the kids get to decorate over and over. It is a great idea but I hope he doesn't get the idea of decorating our tree over and over. For a kid, I imagine it would be very confusing. 

Tonight we are heading an hour north to see Santa and ride through the Christmas light display. I'm so excited that being at work is going to be so tough. I hope seeing Santa goes as well as it did last year.

My Love/Hate Relationship with Thanksgiving

Hate

1// Never-ending cooking. I love to cook but once you have made 3 casseroles, it starts getting old. The thrill is gone. Then you have to start making yourself cook. Not fun.

2// Messing up a recipe. After cooking so many things, you are bound to mess something up and it is not fun.

3// Forgetting something important. This year it was the poultry season. Nothing like a trip to the grocery store on Thanksgiving!

4// Chaos. I have anxiety when I am around lots of people. Then you add people I don't know and I get real nervous. We had 18 people for Thanksgiving and two of those were people new to the family. Oh it makes me nervous with all the chaos of different people talking and the house filling up. 

5// The mess. We are the family that uses paper plates and all but still there is a ton to clean up. You are all full of yummy food but you can't relax because of the mess. 

6// The pressure to socialize. You don't want to be rude but there is someone there you don't really like but you have to be nice anyways. Ugh! Small talk-don't like it. 

Love

1// Planning. I love planning and organizing. Thanksgiving is a huge endevor so it takes quite a bit of planning and organzing. It is something I start working on at least a week in advance. A few days before I shop and then start putting food together. 

2// Seeing family members you don't see very often and spending more time with the family members you see often.

3// Yummy food and leftover!

4// Dressing kiddos up.

5// Shopping deals.

6// Kickoff to the holiday season.

7// Vacation from work.

8// Reflection time for all that you are thankful for.