Holiday Magic

It’s been awhile since I shared some pictures so today you’re in for a treat, LOTS of them! *grin*

Most of our leaves have finally fallen but last week the girls enjoyed playing in the piles before Daddy dragged them off to the woods … thought I’d share some fun pictures of that. I’m glad they still enjoy the innocence of youth doing things like jumping in the leaves.

{yes, my daughter is still wearing shorts and t-shirts in November! That girl is never cold!}

Here is a picture from my first Blessings Unlimited Gathering. On the table are all the items that I got in my consultant kit – SO many beautiful things! I just adore all their stuff.

On Thanksgiving Eve our church had a service and our girls sang a song with the Praise Kids. One of Hope’s best friends sang a solo in the beginning and the whole thing was beautiful! I took pictures during their rehearsal …

{Hope is the one in the back row in the red and grey striped shirt.}

{Joy is in the back row with the black shirt and headband.}   

{There were 2 services, so they sang, then sat through the service, then sang again at the next service.}

{We are soooooo thankful for so many wonderful, Christian friends for the girls! This is such a great group of young ladies!!}

On Thanksgiving Day our whole family participated in a local 5k Turkey Trot. A few of us either walked or ran the 5k, a couple others ran the one mile, and a couple stayed warm in the car to watch {LOL}. It was EARLY, it was COLD, but it was so much fun! I had been struggling with running lately, I ran on Tuesday and could not run a whole 3 miles without stopping … but we got there Thursday morning and my Father in law said ‘don’t worry, you’ll do fine, it’s called race day magic’ … well sure enough he was RIGHT! I ran the whole way without stopping and I felt GREAT! Here is the whole group minus my sis in law who took the picture.

We hosted Thanksgiving so after the race we rushed home to get dinner started. I was so busy all day that I didn’t really take photos. It was just a nice day with family. The girls loved having their cousins here to play with. The kids played outside and were filthy all day. There were no fancy outfits for dinner. It was just simple and good to be together. I did get ONE picture of the cousins all together – so hard to get the nephews to be serious and smile nice for a pic, but this was the best I could do. =)

On Friday I got up early to shop on Black Friday {yes I’m slightly crazy!} I could not sleep well and woke up at 5am so I figured I might as well just get up and go get my shopping done. My tip for Black Friday is to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! I looked through all the sale flyers on Thursday night, figured out which stores I wanted to hit and what I wanted from each store. I made a list with the name of the store and what I wanted at that store. Then I took the flyers, list and coupons in my purse. I went ALONE {to me this is key, cause when I’m on a mission it’s easier to shop alone}. I picked up a coffee and bagel from Dunkin Donuts and got shopping! The stores were NOT that crazy, I think since many were open at midnight that it wasn’t that crazy in the morning. They were also VERY well staffed so I never even waited in ANY lines! I kid you not, I walked right up to the register in every store and I went to about 8 places! {I also was not looking for any big ticket items – just clothes and toys and such so they had plenty of everything I wanted.} I dare say I had FUN!

I was home by 9:30 with 90% of my shopping done and everyone in my house was just waking up for breakfast!

This year I bought an Elf on the Shelf. My girls know that Santa isn’t real … but I know that they will still have a lot of fun with this new tradition. I’ve been looking at ideas on Pinterest for fun ways this little Elf can get into mischief each night and I really think it’s going to be a FUN month! To me, fun traditions are what it’s all about. These are the things I hope my kids remember about their childhood and maybe even continue on with their own families. {OK, wow, getting WAY ahead of myself!}

So here is where that little elf is hiding out on his very first night in our home ….. we’ll see how long it takes for the girls to find him in the morning!

Isn’t he cute?! We called him “Jingle”.

 

Hope your holidays are filled with ‘magic’!