Thankful for -

A cute sister in law, who hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year ...

A beautifully set table, with equally beautiful food ...

Family ...

Relationships ...

My children ...

Music ...

Naps ...

Love ...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day with my brother and his family.  It was nice and low key.  We had an incredibly delicious dinner, went to see the movie "Life of Pi", came back home for left overs and dessert, and then headed out for the dreaded, beloved Black Friday.  The boys headed to Best Buy and Walmart, the girls headed off to our new Outlet Mall ... boys outlasted the girls by about four hours.  

Who would have guessed?  

Circles.

Libby started drawing circles a while back.

                                                                  

Then she started to add faces.

Now she adds bodies and limbs.

She is a coloring machine.  

After she has been over for a visit, 

I find her little pictures all around the house 

and I love it. 

They make me smile ...  She makes me smile ... I feel blessed to call her mine.

#luckygrammie

'tis the season ... already.

YOU KNOOOOOW ... once that whole retail Christmas thing gets underway, we're all in for it.  I so love the Thanksgiving holiday, but to be honest, with the snow, the Christmas carols playing on the radio, and the two Christmas concerts I went to this past week, the orange pumpkins that are still sitting on my front porch and the fall wreath on my front door just look a little out of place.  I can't like it too much.

BUT. I really am getting into the holiday spirit as a whole, and I do like that!

One of our local radio stations does a live broadcast from our mall every Tuesday and Thursday at noon with great local artists performing Christmas music.  They started this week with Kurt Bestor (love him), Kade Smith (a good friend of Chloe's), and Cori Connors (a good family friend from way back), so it was an extra special way to jump start the season of HOLIDAY JOY!

Mrs. Clause was there serving hot chocolate during the shows.

AND ...

Our mall has the REAL Santa!!!  Can you believe it?!

Pretty cool.

I just love Santa.

A "major" winter storm.

I guess you could tell from the last post ... we got a little bit of snow over the weekend.  

Including snow covered hills ...

Frosted window panes ...

Icicles ...

Hungry little backyard vistors ...

Soooooo .... let the Christmas carols begin?

I think maybe so.

The big orange T.

After having spent a full year in Tennessee as an entertainer, Chloe had fallen completely in love with the south (and a southern boy for that matter) for many, many reasons.  Before leaving Pigeon Forge to head back home to Utah, she placed a big orange T on the rear window of her little Suzuki in remembrance of the land she loved.

Chloe and I both work in Draper and both have the habit of driving through the McDonald's on our way into work for our early morning large diet coke with extra ice.  Lately, we seem to be on the same schedule and I've been seeing a lot of that big orange T.  She and I always smile really big at each other, wave, and get such a kick out of it!

Saturday, on a non-working day for both of us, we still, by sheer coincidence, were both at the drive-thru at the same time.  When I pulled up to the window, the cashier said, "Oh, your daughter paid for you."  

Well how cute is she?!  Sure made my morning!

happy.little.thing. 

A haunted mansion.

Boy, I thought my house was a little creepy/spooky this year ...

NOT EVEN CLOSE!

We found our own haunted mansion, right here in little ol' Draper.

That GIGANTIC troll and these heads were animatronic.  

The troll stood up and spoke, and these heads moved their mouths and sang. 

(Dare I say they rivaled Disney's Hanted Mansion?  They really did.)

It wasn't quiiiiiiite as scary during the day.  Libby went up to this creepy little girl

and wanted to touch her.  Then she said, "I like her nighty."  

 Until next year then .....

Bright colored leaves.

The day after Halloween, one of our radio stations started playing Christmas carols.

Now, I LOVE Christmas music just as much as the next guy, but I could not wrap my head around "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" when the fall foliage is still spectacular right in my very own driveway.  So I am refusing to enjoy it, until the leaves have taken flight and end up in big black trash bags.

I'm not quite ready to change the color scheme in my world from orange and gold to red and green just yet.

And besides, I still have another Halloween post I've been wanting to do .. and it does NOT include cute trick or treaters and (trust me) it is NOT for the faint of heart.

Stay tuned.

The right to VOTE.

Today the country will vote for a new President of the United States of America.

I heard the voting polls opened at 7:00 am.

I took a morning walk to cast my vote.

Proud to be an American today.