Our Second Thanksgiving

This weekend, we had fun celebrating Thanksgiving a second time with Tim's parents. It's so hard living away from your family during holidays and trying to travel to see everyone. We're so thankful that Tim's parents traveled to us this weekend to spend some time together.

They arrived yesterday and we spent some time together in the afternoon doing a lot of nothing. Tim's dad helped him install a new outlet in the garage and his Mom helped me in the house with Eli. I was able to get a shower and run a few errands by myself (so much faster!). Last night we had our Thanksgiving dinner - no turkey this time, filet mignons on the grill, baked potatoes and salad followed by key lime margarita pie and sweet potato pie. Yummmmmy. Eli was a bit fussy so we had dinner later than planned but it was nice when we finally were able eat.

Today was the day to put the BIG Christmas tree up. It took several trips to move it down from the attic and I swear, it grew over the past year in there! For those who don't know, last year we purchased a 12' artificial tree. It was so expensive to keep getting live trees and just plain hard to get them home and put up (not to mention trying to find sturdy limbs for ornaments). So we bit the bullet and got the artificial one and, you know, it's nice not to worry about going out to get a tree this year. The fun is getting the tree put together and hoping all the lights work. We were so happy that they did! Eli woke up from a nap to find this big tree in the living room. Next year he'll really enjoy it. We don't have ornaments on yet, it was a victory to just get the tree up and fluffed.

A little confession....ok, so there are no ornaments on yet because during Eli's long nap this afternoon, Tim & I played a little 'Guitar Hero III' on Playstation 2. We used both guitars and played a show together. It was so fun and a great break after the holiday hectic-ness. Tim commented that the game is so anti-me and it is; I'm not usually big on video games but this is just so much fun. We did take a great family walk around the neighborhood with the dog this afternoon. So nice to be out in the fresh air.

Better run and make dinner....here are some pictures of our weekend.

The BIG tree - Grandma's on an 8' ladder

Santa's helper tuckered out

Grandma and Grandpa

Santa baby....how sweet

All bundled up for our walk