A Decade Minus ONE

In addition to celebrating a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family from far away. .we celebrated another little "something special" that happens around this time every year too!!

This guy got to turn NINE! Which, last I checked. .is only one year from being a whole decade. .and that TOTALLY doesn't seem right to me!! We got to anticipate an induction with him (since we lived an hour away from any delivering hospitals. .and had gone from 7cm to delivering a baby 45 minutes after my water broke with Grant). We brought him home the day before Thanksgiving. .and we have been thankful for him every Thanksgiving since!

He gets the best of both worlds, really. He usually gets to celebrate his birthday with both sides of our family, where the other kids only celebrate with the family living near us.

He recieved some Beyblades from my mom and sister. .and they were enjoyed by all the Y chromosome type people roaming the house. .young. .and OLD! We had a GREAT visit with all my family! Everyone was there. .4 kids. .4 spouses. .and ALL 13 very noisy grandkids!! And on the note of being thankful. .we were thankful that the weather was fairly nice. .and they could get some outdoor time in!! We were also thankful that Tristan drove 5 out of the six hours round trip. .and he did well, despite the dark and the holiday traffic! Devin only complained twice that Tristan's driving was "freakin' him out."

You may remember that Devin bought a little remote control boat on vacation last summer. .it never did work very well and was pretty disappointing for him. A few weeks after we got home from vacation, I was on Amazon for something and saw that select toys were 60% off. .GUESS what I found??

He was in total heaven!! The cats weren't sure what to think about it. .

They were intrigued to say the least!

It was one of our first really yucky cold days here. .and that made driving it from the front window even better! Have I ever mentioned how MUCH we LOVE our little fish pond??

Dev enjoyed having a couple of his friends spend the night to celebrate too, feasting on homemade pizza and candy cane trifles (a cool recipe we found in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine while driving home Thanksgiving night!)

Then, we got to enjoy a get-together with Jeremy's family. It was thanksgiving and TWO birthday parties. .all rolled up into one!

And ONE little girl wasn't arguing a BIT about getting to open some presents early!! Her real birthday is yet to come, and of course. .more photos to follow. Grandma crafted TWO birthday cakes. .One chocolate baseball themed cake (the figurine on Dev's is a baseball coin bank). .And one strawberry princess cake. .with purple polka dots! Cami's leftover cake went to the freezer, so her lazy mom can pull it out on her REAL birthday for some no-stress birthday eats!

The girls were sporting their new girly scarves that grandma had given them while they played beyblades with the boys! The cousins enjoyed playing together, as usual. And we knocked off a little early so we could all go to town and watch. ."PUSS IN BOOTS!" Tristan went on a mission trip to Denver to work with Operation Christmas Child. .so he missed the whole party!

Grandma gave the boys some wooden peg games like they played in times past. .

. .And we all enjoyed watching Jeremy and Granddad battle it out! My guys continued to mess with the games for the rest of the weekend!

Our house and yard are decorated and lit. .Tristan's group made it home early this morning. .my bedroom floor is full of gifts bought yesterday while taking all my women in-laws to Wichita shopping. .we start Christmas programs this week and more pep band games.

I gifted myself a new digital candy thermometer yesterday (much to the dismay of Grandma. .who decided, after hearing me talk about them on the way up, that it would be a PERFECT gift) It is long and tall. .and not glass. .and it will beep when it hits the right temperature. It means that I will no longer have to make a trail of twist ties to hook my glass thermometer to the side of my 20 gallon pot to get the end of it in the candy. .It means that I won't have to constantly move the glass around to try to read numbers under the steam fog that acrues. .it means that I won't be standing on my head reading the numbers while stirring at the same time. .and most importantly. .it means that I won't have to replace it frequently because someone has dropped it in the sink while washing it. .or killed a fly with the UNOPENED thermometer package. .before HE took the chance to notice that there was a glass tool inside the cardboard!! Candy making will soon be full steam ahead!

Let the season of our Savior's birth. .

and all things festive and yummy begin!!

Eat, shop, and be merry. .

And don't forget to open your bible to Luke chapter 2 to recall why we REALLY celebrate this wonderful season!

Enjoy your week!!