WHERE DID NOVEMBER GO????

Could someone please tell me where November went because I think we skipped that month and just went straight to December since it flew by so fast. So as you can tell I totally dropped the ball on blog updates for November, whoops, and so it goes eh. But I did not want to skip over Thanksgiving b/c I've got some cute pics in our slideshow above of our first T-day together as a family of six as well as the day after when we picked out our Christmas tree. We made the decision to stay home for Thanksgiving b/c a few of us were not feeling so well and long story short-er... we did the unthinkable Martha Stewart and yes, we ordered our turkey and side dishes from Ralphs (Although I did make a couple favorite side dishes). It was actually pretty tasty although the kids were wondering a week later if we would be having turkey AGAIN for lunch/dinner ;-). Ooohhh, the leftovers are just the best, aren't they?! So 6 of us celebrated together and each person made a Thankful Card (new tradition) where we wrote down what we are thankful for and decorated it with pens, stickers, pictures etc. Then at dinner we went around and each shared our card. We'll put them in a special Thanksgiving album so we'll collect these cards over the years in the hopes that we can laugh and reminisce as a family over them in the future. There are pics in the slideshow of our cards... just to prove, hey, some kids are pretty thankful. It's become pretty normal in the past few years for us to start the Christmas decorating the weekend of Thanksgiving since we're all off work and have some free time together, so that's what we did! Our tree is a beautiful 6 foot Noble Fir and although it sure does make our living room smaller it's worth it. We all had a lot of fun putting on the ornaments, listening to Christmas music, and putting up decorations around the house. Ama and Jo happily went with the flow and are really excited about all the special things we do for Christmas. Ama tells us that in Ghana they celebrated Jesus' birth by going to church and then having a special meal. Simple, yet meaningful & beautiful. Ama is so eager to partake in our Christmas traditions, her eyes light up every time we speak of them. December is here and we're already in full holiday swing...advent calendar is up and the kids get up each morning to ask if it's their turn to open the box to find out what surprise is in there. Santa comes to our street in a couple weeks to give out candy canes and listen to Christmas wishes (that means smores and hot chocolate for us, mmmm). The Christmas lights in South Torrance will be even more fun this year with 2 newbies taking it all in. The kids picked out Christmas gifts for each other from the dollar section at Target and it would be an understatement to say they're excited to give them out. Gingerbread houses, Christmas cookies, and well, I'll try to keep the blog better updated as stuff comes up so you can read about the kids' reactions and see pictures of these experiences. Enjoy the slideshow!