Couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some outdoor Christmas decorating in with the warm weather we had this first weekend of December. Paige had to work all weekend, so Jeff and I had to get the tree without her. (We ended up getting the one on the left.) Paige requested to have colored lights around our windows this year and Jeff obliged. Now all we need is snow to make the decorations look picture perfect!

I turned another year older Nov. 19th and was treated to Cold Stone Creamery for my birthday treat. Super yummy!

For Thanksgiving this year, we opted to trek down to Indy since no one had to work over the weekend. We arrived very late Wednesday night, and had to be up bright and early the next day. Bryn came up with the idea to enter a Thanksgiving run/walk, so I worked with Meg to find a run nearby and sign up those who wanted to. Bryn hurt her hip flexor in October and was just cleared to run by the trainer, so she was really happy to have everyone join her. Jeff had some turkey prepping to do before he could leave. Glad he did, because the turkey was delicious!

We sure had fun staying at Meg's and playing with their puppy, Diesel, picking out new Scentsy scents, listening to how much Lucy loves us (not!), playing BlackOps on that ginormous screen, playing "hide Lucy's blankie", and eating leftovers.

Black Friday sales beginning Thanksgiving night kind of threw our annual shopping trip off. Paige got word (via text) that Hollister and other mall shops were opening at 12midnight and offering 40 – 60% off. Jeff volunteered to take the older kids out for that sale. Me, Mom, Meg, Kristin and Abby opted to stick with our usual plan and head out early in the a.m. We left Meg's house at 5:30am. It was really weird not fighting crowds, searching for a parking space, or waiting in long checkout lines at the big box stores. None of us complained though. We recharged with breakfast at Panera and capped off the trip with margaritas for lunch at Abuelos.

We left Indy Saturday night, called Craig on our way through Chicago and were able to meet him and Clark at Culver's for dinner.

Jeff's work website finally launched after my 3 years of redesigning it, submitting estimates to meet their budget, and aligning it to their requirements. I visited Ring & DuChateau to pick up my check and was able to visit with a few of Jeff's colleagues. Sad there aren't Christmas parties anymore.