Deck the Halls

Our little immediate family doesn't have a ton of Christmas traditions. I know. BAD Garcia's. My excuse though is the number of family traditions we still are expected to partake in on each side of our extended families. I'm a willing participant, but it doesn't leave much room for adding new ones for our little family! So that's something we are working on this year, adding a few more to the list that are unique to us.

However, one of the few we do have is that we decorate for Christmas on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I'm not a huge black friday shopper (I'm just not nice at 3:00am), and PJ insisted on this the first year we were married, and now it really is a tradition (and I love it). PJ generally spends several hours cursing at the lights for the outside of the house (sorry, did I say cursing? PJ would NEVER do that. :) ), and I wrestle the inside decor. I'm rather picky about my tree, and letting go enough to let two little men help is difficult, but I try. I can't promise I don't do some rearranging of ornaments after they go to bed, but hey, I think if you know me, that's not at all shocking. This year, we had some extra hands with Gigi here while we decorated the tree, and the boys loved that! In the end, we are all excited to spend the day together, and really love the excitement it brings the boys. Once the sun goes down, we have a "lights on" ceremony of our own in the front yard, and it always thrills the boys.

Thankful

In 2010, I have much to be thankful for. I have an amazing, supportive husband, and two beautiful, spunky, healthy, little boys (who I love more than life), wonderful parents, family, and friends. Even among the curve balls life throws our way every so often (and in the last few years, it seems we've had our share), we are so thankful for what we have been given.

This year we enjoyed a rather quiet Thanksgiving day. We normally make the rounds to both sides of the family, which is fun, but WEARS ME OUT. This year, PJ's parents were out of town, so we only went to my Mom's. While we missed seeing PJ's family, it was nice to be able to relax! We were even able to finish early enough this year to take the boys to Utica Square's lights on event (a first for all four of us). The half hour they drug out the "lights on" presentation was rough with an almost 6 year old and 2 1/2 year old (who was going on no nap) in the cold, but totally worth it to see their faces when they finally went on.

We spent some time on the way home talking about what we were thankful for as a family, and I thought I'd share the boys' answers - just too cute.

Britton - "I'm thankful for Santa Claus. And family." (Glad Santa now outranks us)
Leyton - "I thankful for Thanksgiving!" (What can I say, the kid loves to eat)

FINALLY, the lights are on!

Britton was in love with this telephone booth. Not sure what the draw is (it was yucky on the inside), but he would have stayed there if we let him.

Pilgrim BK. :)