It's almost here...

At Thanksgiving, the kids were given advent calendars from their Mia and Papa.

With tomorrow being December 1st, they are so excited that it is almost time to start opening those boxes...❤︎

Christmas card traditions...

I have a tradition that I have done from the beginning of our marriage when I do the Christmas cards: I play Christmas music, while I drink a Christmas drink from Starbucks, and I write out our cards and addresses to family and friends.  

Each person, near or far, bring so much joy to our family and it is so much fun to send cards out this time of year!

The Langham

On Monday, my mom treated my sister and I to having tea at the Langham in Pasadena with some of our dear family friends.  It was beautiful...

 The completely edible Christmas village...
My kids would have lost their mind!

 

The pastry chefs arrive at work at 3am to create these incredible edible masterpieces!

What we got to take our goodies home in...

It was an incredible experience, with incredible women, and I am so thankful to have had a chance to be part of making such a memory.
Thank you mom for making the day so special!

Starting off the Christmas Season!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we have a tradition of decorating our Mia and Papa's house for Christmas.  With Thanksgiving over, we get the Christmas music and movies going, we look through old ornaments and play games and eat lots of good food.

 My parents have lived in this house for over 40 years and I can remember when there were just 4 stockings...

 Reading outloud to Eden and I...

Italian food will always be a favorite and home made meatballs were a HIT!

 We also did a 1000 piece puzzle and had the best conversations and laughed SO SO hard...

...while our daughters crafted:

 The evening ended with the kiddos getting their chocolate advent calendars from Papa!

Kit stayed home this year to help prepare for speaking and teaching on Sunday.  

He was so missed...

Thanksgiving Break 2018

We had some sweet days last week, celebrating Thanksgiving.  There was no school and that felt like Christmas came early! 
Things like relaxed play and no schedule made it so sweet:

The first couple days, the kids had a slumber party with their Mia and Papa in Redlands.

While they were gone, we had a double date with two of our favorite people and a place we had never been to before at the Spectrum:

 We love our Elkins!

I worked on Thanksgiving day, but my parents were coming out so we still got to plan some fun things for hosting a thanksgiving dinner!
And we even snuck treats in for ourselves that weren't on the list.

 Kit brined his turkey and appropriately used a (new) Home Depot bucket with words that couldn't have been more perfect as he went to smoking his first turkey.

Instead of having our family out of town in Santa Maria, they were home waiting for me with an amazing meal.  Mia and Papa spent the night which made it so special too!

All the fun was happening at home while I was over at work, but I am thankful for my job and my coworkers!

It was a good day and I had a really great shift with my friends at work.❤︎

There is so much to be thankful for and as the week came to a close, I couldn't help but reflect on all the things that God has given us that bring so much joy to our lives, each other, our health, our family and community, our home and clean water and food... 
Most importantly, a life we get to live with our Jesus. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we spend time with loved ones and prepare and create space to recalibrate our hearts to gratitude and thanksgiving, we wanted to wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving, from our family to yours!❤︎ 

"Enter His gates with thanksgiving

and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.

For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;

His faithfulness continues through all generations!"

Psalm 100:4&5

Little Turkeys...

These turkeys are VERY excited that they have had no school this week and that Thanksgiving is tomorrow!