November 2014: Full of Gratitude

In November we wanted to take some fun time off to play, enjoy family, and appreciate what an incredible life we have.  Really!  It was important to pause and recognize how much fun we're having. We'd been working hard, and we were ready to kick off the holidays with family.  First, we headed to Cannon Beach for some relaxing  just-us-three kind of fun. 

I

 Then we returned home to break out the Christmas dress (Sunny was over the moon)...another great find from my favorite neighborhood re-sale store. Check out the candy canes.

 And we decorated her critter house for the holidays, complete with tiny battery lights.

 She made a festive swag for the mantel...she loves to decorate.

 We met friends Tilden and Maggie at the park! We hosted slumber parties with Olivia and Ania on different nights.  The deal is that the girls must make it through a whole slumber party without crying (from arguing, feeling lonely or getting injured) before we'll do a sleepover with more than 1 guest.

 Then Grandma and Grandpa arrived for Thanksgiving adventures with us, Nauntie and Sean-Sean.

 She's a random little cook, this one.

 More proud sharing of her school workbook, the Cahier de Vie. Here she's pointing at the French lyrics and she sings a song about colors to the tune of  "Sur le Pont d'Avignon."

 Max gave me the most amazing front door upgrade - it's cooler than I could have imagined.  He fitted all the wood pieces onto the old door, nailed 'em on there, and Sunny helped him seal it with oil.

 Then batgirl showed up again, which is known to happen often...

 Sometimes even super heroes stop to help with the gardening.  Since we'd had such mild weather, Cackle, our Japanese maple, still had a lot of leaves.  She helped to strip them off so I could put up the Christmas lights.  They'd look kind of funky shining through dead leaves.

 We had a wonderful feast Chez Nauntie/Sean-Sean.  

It was Asian-themed, and not just cause Max and Sunny were there. That's the gorgeous reclaimed wood table that Sean and Max built for Kelly.  It kicked off a huge new hobby for Max!

On Black Friday, I went shopping with Jessi from morning till night - few people were still out by 10 a.m., when we started, so we did our browsing and holiday shopping in peace. It was my first time shopping the day after Thanksgiving, and it was nothing like I'd feared.  It was special to have girls time with Jessi and no kids asking if they could go home yet!  Meanwhile, Papa and Max showed Sunny, Halle, Sebastian, Lucca and Arie a great time.  Everyone slept super hard that night. I think it'll be our new tradition - moms head out while all the kids play hard at home! We have such wonderful family and friends.  We're full of gratitude!