Holly, Jolly Haze

Oh, I love this time of year, yet am exhausted by it!  How about a photo dump to get me back into the blogging swing of things?

 We had a great Thanksgiving- Morgan's sister and brother-in-law and their kids came in town, and we were joined by my brother, sister-in-law and their two little girls at my parents.

 My sous chefs were hard at work, crushing cracker crumbs, and rolling out pie crusts.

 Then after whipping up cinnamon whipped cream, licking the beaters.

 The kids were in seventh heaven having their teenage cousins here.  I too, was in heaven, having all the extra hands.  I am so thankful that I just adore Morgan's family.  If they could be here every weekend, I would be thrilled.  That's why I'm pushing for my niece to come to UT next fall.  Plus, you know, I always love some babysitting. . .ha!

 Deeds wore one red rain boot and one yellow rain boot to Thanksgiving dinner.  He wanted to mix it up.

In other momentous news, I managed to push both kids in the double stroller and have Tommy in the baby Bjorn for two laps around my house.  You know, about half a mile, ha!  I was worn out!

 That's about a hundred pounds of kid.  I'm back jazzing too, which is exciting.

Let's see, Christmas activities are in full swing.  Dell Harper and Deeds had a marvelous time at the church's family advent workshop.

Tommy chilled throughout, which was very helpful.

Dell Harper got to go to a gingerbread house party, which was a blast.  Check out her masterpiece.

Naughty

 And nice!

The big kids helped me decorate the tree.  This was rather  stressful and non-helpful, but also wildly entertaining and sweet.

 Said tree is still half decorated, but I will get the"grown-up" fragile ones up eventually.

Hey there, Tommy!  He did an excellent job supervising.

 We are all still enraptured with Mr. Tommy.  He has started smiling, especially at his brother and sister.  Dell Harper said "Mommy, I wonder why he loves us so much more than you?", since he smiled at them first and more frequently.  Harrumph to all of that.

Deeds really loves his "little guy", as he calls Tommy.  They melt my heart.

Hmm, what else?  Dell Harper and I helped host a mother daughter holiday tea again this year.  No choking on cookies occurred, so that was good.  She was thrilled that "Santa Claus' woman" (aka how DH refers to Mrs. Claus), was there.

Okay, time to dash off to pickup kiddos.  And I have to wake the baby up to do so!  Brutal!! Excuse the lack of grammar and run-on sentences.  My thoughts are just completely run-on right now! Ha!