It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

Love holiday time! Love. Love. Love. Love Christmas. Love Thanksgiving. Love the spirit in the air, the maddening pace of things. The search for perfect gifts. Love the cooking and the smells. Love the weather. And best of all, it's the one time of year that family time is a must, even way down to the extended tiny branches of the family tree. Love Christmas!

Our Thanksgiving was great. We spent the entire day with Lee's "Ma", Aunt Amy and Uncle Nick, Emily, and our immediate Biebighauser clan. I made two halfway decent cream pies (thank you Nanny!), we ate until we were ill, we played outside because it was gorgeous, and just hung out with everyone. Love it!




Somewhere along the way, Pop (Gary) figured out he could "help" Lily drive the little John Deere mule by pushing the gas with a stick and walking beside her. She absolutely loved this independence and had a smile a mile wide. In fact, once he told her no more, she tried to do it on her own with the stick. Hilarious.





The next day we "Thanksgivinged" with my side. Uncle Eric made it in and birthday partied a little late with Grace.



Also that day, Grace's birthday present from Aunt Jenny and Uncle Alan came. Reaction to that was priceless. Thanks you guys!


And we've been decorating! It's always interesting trying to figure out where all the objects go in a new house, but we're having fun doing it. Lily in particular is precious to watch, as this is the first Christmas she's really been into the process.





And to file in the "random" folder, Lily has started riding her trike, and we took a tree down in our front yard. Never a dull moment around this place!