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Friday, November 28, 2008

Kicking off the holidays

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday and there are countless things I am grateful for...my loving husband, a kind-hearted son, a humorous daughter, the best extended family, dear friends, the freedoms we enjoy in this great country and those men & women who put their lives on the line everyday, and too many other things to list.

While I am very thankful, I am always ready to blow through Thanksgiving and get right to the day after because that marks the official start of "the holidays." Growing up, we ALWAYS drove to a Christmas tree farm the day after Thanksgiving to cut down our tree. Soon after, the tree and the decorations went up. Jeremy & I followed that tradition for a few years but now we've sold out and gone with the fake tree. However, we started our own family tradition of always going to the downtown Seattle Nordstrom the day after Thanksgiving to see Santa. The Macy's holiday parade is going on at the same time so it's fun to see it go by as we wait to see the big man.
For the 2nd year in a row, Santa has had to "go feed the reindeer" and then the kids sit in his chair only for him to sneak in behind for the photo. Poor little Maggie just gets super freaked out. My brother & I sat on Santa's lap into our 20's and my parents have every photo lining the hallway at Christmastime. My favorite picture is the one where Mark is about 2 and screaming. Unfortunately Maggie was so hysterical, she wouldn't even sit long enough to get a pic of her screaming on Santa's lap. Nevertheless, it's a fun tradition and definitely signals the start of the Christmas festivities.

So, if you're looking for me tomorrow, we'll be watching Christmas Vacation, putting up the tree and the decorations, and Jeremy will be out on the roof putting up the lights. Ragen seems to think that he's going to be up there helping. I just can't imagine where he got that idea...

August 2007 - Jeremy decided it'd be a good idea to put our 3 year old on the roof while he painted. I swear I didn't authorize this "fun."

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