Just Pictures

Ho Ho Ho

I cannot believe the holidays are here already. We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house with my parents, sister and family, grandfather and cousin Shasta and her family. Shasta and I grew up down the street from each other in Alaska and spent most of our holidays together growing up, but this is the first time we've been together over the holidays in eight years. She and her family just moved from CA to New Orleans for a few years, so we are making the most of our time together while we can!

Dinner was fabulous with way too much food, as always. The table in the picture above was just appetizers and desserts. In true MS style, it was about 80 degrees on Thanksgiving Day, so we were all in tank tops and shorts. Miss Emery enjoyed her first Thanksgiving very much. She spent most of the meal in my lap gnawing on my napkin. She is defintitely starting to notice food, and will try to snag a spoon or fork when she can. I still plan to wait until 6 months to introduce solids a. Because she is not suffering AT ALL in the weight department and b. because I am in no hurry for my baby to grow up! I can't believe she will be six months old in January!! For those of you who have been through the baby food transition before - I am really wanting to try pureeing things we eat to give to her once we get past the initial introduction of solids. Has anyone done that, and if so when did you start?

Shasta and I braved the crowds the day after thanksgiving for our very first Black Friday venture. I'll have to say I was a little dissapointed. Of course neither of us were ready to get out at 5am, we waited until almost 7am. Shopping with my cousin was fun, but the sales were just not that great, although we did score some adorable hats for the kids. We also took the kids for their very first pictures with Santa. Emery was a champ, and even smiled for hers.

I have a confession to make - I've become a little obssessed with HSN and QVC. I believe if I had the $$ and stayed at home, I'd probably never venture out of my house to shop. I started out watching it when I was feeding her because it's low key and not loud, but they actually have some really neat stuff and good deals. Now if only they had a Home Shopping Outlet - then I'd really be in trouble. I have a hard time paying full price, even half price, for anything these days, since I know I can almost always find it at a better price at the outlets or Hudson's.

Life is very good right now - we both feel tremendously blessed this holiday season. Jeff has been busy busy with his new job. We finally caved and got internet at the house, so he's busy loading loan applications in the evenings after Emery does to bed. I'm loving this cooler weather and coming home to a house filled with christmas lights - this is my absolute favorite time of year!!