Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Decorating for Christmas

We had a GREAT Thanksgiving this year. We were invited to spend the day with two great families . We started the day off eating the main meal at the Brown's home. The food was delicious and the kids had a lot of fun playing. Another family in our ward was able to be there with us and they have a little boy who is Landon's age named Matthew. Landon and Matthew go to the same preschool so they have become good friends. It was so fun watching Landon and Matthew play together (and to watch Tori follow them around everywhere). I loved spending Thanksgiving with the Browns and we had a wonderful time.

After we ate at the Browns we headed over to the Millers, another family in our ward, for pie. Every Thanksgiving the Millers cook a pie for every adult who is at their home for Thanksgiving. On Wednesday I wet over to their house to help them make pies and we made 17 pies! They turned out delicious! It was great spending time with the Miller's and their guests.

The Browns and the Millers taught me a valuable lesson this year. Despite having plenty of family nearby to fill their homes these two families remembered the members of our ward who are far away from their own extended families and invited us to join theirs for the day. They made us feel completely welcome and wanted. I hope that in the future when we have plenty of family near by to fill our home for the holidays that we remember to include those who may not be so close to their family in our holiday plans. This ward has really taught me a lot about service and what it means to be a ward family. I am really going to miss everyone here when the time comes for us to move.

Here are some Thanksgiving pictures:

This morning I braved the Black Friday sales. I got some good deals but it was CRAZY! I witnessed a fight outside of Target and I learned that Walmart is never a good idea on Black Friday no matter how good the deals seem.

After I got home from shopping I took a nap. Once I woke up Landon really wanted to put up the Christmas tree. So we got out the Christmas decorations and went to work. I don't have a ton of decorations but we have no room in our tiny house for anything but our nativity set and our Christmas tree. I look forward to the day when we have a house big enough for some decent decorations, but I digress. Landon and Tori had so much fun putting up the decorations and I love seeing how excited Landon is for Christmas this year!

In this picture Landon is playing with an AWESOME Nativity Set that Fisher Price makes that my Mom bought for the kids this year. I highly recommend it for all of you with young children.