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

My parents came to visit the week of Thanksgiving and it was a lovely week. We always enjoy our time together. Their visit this time was full of good food and house hunting.(We are hoping to purchase a home next year) And amazingly enough my parents are also in the market for a home. One somewhere nearby. Yes, I may be lucky enough to live near my parents for a few months out of the year. A dream come true.
Thanksgiving Day was relaxed and yummy. I made candy turkeys with the kids and we had a lovely array of traditional Thanksgiving fare. My favorite was the cheese pie we ordered from The Pancake Mill(a local restaurant) it was truly divine!

I didn't plan any sort of table setting or place markers but somehow things still came together right before we feasted.

We are lucky enough to see the missionaries from our Church regularly. Ryan is the Ward mission leader and we love being a part of the Missionary work in our little town. I take the responsibility of feeding them very seriously:) We enjoyed our pie with them and watched the movie 17 Miracles. We have so much to be thankful for!

We visited the Shores Acres Holiday light display the day after Thanksgiving. This new tradition of ours is one of my favorites. We may not always go the day after Thanksgiving(They start ON Thanksgiving) because it was VERY busy. Surprisingly though, I was able to get some photos without masses of people in them:)

At our house, Christmas decorations begin to go up after Thanksgiving. The Christmas music begins to play and we start our yearly traditions.
Putting up the tree is my way of getting our Christmas season started. The kids were happy to help and before I knew it I was halfway done stringing the lights and ALL of my Christmas boxes were unpacked and strewn about the front room! My children are incredible at making messes very quickly. I wish I had a photograph to prove how miraculous the disaster was but I don't.

Our happy little tree gets undecorated and redecorated multiple times a day. It's a tough little guy and it makes me smile every time I enter the room.

Our stockings are hung by the window with care.

Each evening we light our advent candle and read Scriptures about Christ and the reason we celebrate Christmas.
We'll be starting our 12 days of Christmas soon and I can't wait to share in the fun. Just preparing it for the kids filled my heart with gladness. I know there aren't going to be too many Christmases like these where my children are young and the magic of Christmas is everywhere. I want to cherish every single one of them.