It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Here is a picture of the big kids before church last Sunday

Kim made one of my favorite deserts this week (pumpkin squares) and Mason helped clean up the beaters

 Then the kids came to my office and helped me decorate my Christmas tree and we had a picnic lunch in one of the conference rooms

 Lyza wasn't feeling well and did her best not to smile ;)

 We planned on doing a multi-family Thanksgiving dinner at the church on Thanksgiving day but we had sick kids and decided to stay home (we did a ham and scalloped potatoes for dinner instead and it was delicious)

We got a new thing this year called "The 25 days of Christ" that arrived in the mail. There are ornaments for each day of December leading up to Christmas with stories, lessons, activities, etc. We got the package with the ornaments unfinished so we get to paint them all and put them together. Nixon was a great helper for his mom in getting that all ready!

 Kim was crazy enough to do pre-Black Friday shopping the afternoon of Thanksgiving day and was rewarded with a double rainbow

 And a crazy lineup for a store opening at 2 pm

 Meanwhile I was playing with our kids and building long-lasting memories and relationships ;)

 After our Thanksgiving dinner we played some Mario Kart together

It is really interesting how hard the kids find Mario Kart to play. Of course they are only 4 and 6 years old, but I think I could play similar games when I was six...Well, I decided to fact-check that thought and I it turns out I AM WRONG. The first system I remember playing was the original Nintendo (NES) which was released October 1985, when I was less than a year old. The next system I really remember playing was Super Nintendo (SNES) which was released August 23, 1991, (when I was six-and-a-half years old). In fact, I remember Peter and I combined birthday money one year to purchase Super Street Fighter II for SNES, which was released August 1992. With that release date, we probably purchased that game for our eighth birthday at the very earliest (assuming we bought it when it was new). Mario Kart for N64 (what we were playing in this picture) was not released until December 1996, when I was almost 12 years old. Therefore, it is absolutely unreasonable for me to believe that Lyza (almost 7 years old) and Nixon (close to 5 years old) should be better at playing Mario Kart than they are. 

Logistics and fairness aside, it is still really funny watching them play ;)

 Lyza found this pillow while shopping with her mom and she used her own money to buy it

 We all went out on Black Friday for a little shopping and Mason was very friendly with all of the mannequins, including saying hello to all of them

 Nixon and I found some really flashy jackets

 The mall also had cookie decorating for the kids

 Look at Henry's big beautiful smile

 We got the Christmas decorations out on Black Friday and Mason quickly set them up like a train to play with

 Nixon found some Christmas swag

 Here is another of Henry's smiles

 We set up the tree

 Making sure the star is just right

 Setting up the boots under the tree

 Nixon has been soooo excited to put up Christmas decorations

 Henry's little half-smile is pretty cute (his feet were being tickled)

 Then we relaxed and watched the Grinch Who Stole Christmas together

 And Henry had some more smiling to do

 Pretty Lyza in front of the tree

 Yesterday afternoon we decorated the tree

That's all for now. Take care