Thanksgiving Lead Up

Leaves! Glorious Leaves!  Have I every mentioned how much I loved leaves?  It's true I don't like raking them, but honestly, I don't see why raking leaves is such a necessity.  It's not like they are toxic.  The little kids had a grand time jumping off the trampoline into the huge pile of leaves. 

Nothing warms my heart more than children raking leaf houses.  My absolute favorite game as a child.  You can see it in the picture, but on a branch on the other side of the tree is a large collection of sticks and twigs.  As we were arriving home a couple days ago, Abe and I were very complimentary of the "eagle's nest" built onto the tree.  Cannon quickly corrected us-- It is a FORT!  Not a nest!.
My bad.

Abe and Bethany took advantage of a mild day last week and quickly put up a few Christmas lights.  Always nice to get that done before the snow flies.

Last week the Young Men and Young Women went to the Humanitarian Center for a tour and to help tie some quilts.  Our three young people really enjoyed it and found it very interesting.

It's a selfie...and not even a good one at that...but I wanted a picture of our fun outing.  Last Friday Bethany, Cannon, Faith and I took TRAX downtown to hear the Hand Bell Choir at Temple Square.  The concert was wonderful and I quite enjoyed the time with my peeps. 

We recently renewed our membership at Thanksgiving Point.  I took the little kids a couple of weeks back and they were thoroughly entertained.  It's as good as we remembered it!

Peter was way too young for this awesome water table when we last had a membership.  He was just right for it now.  HE LOVED IT!  Can I get me one of these at home?  I guess I already have one--it's called a bathtub.

Happy Peter.  Happy Mama.

Here is my sister and her sweet kids at a recent homeschool Thanksgiving party.  I am so glad to be friends with some very organized, energetic, go-getter homeschoolers.  It's in who you know, right?  I know some pretty great people.

Not really sure why Faith looks like she wants to hurt me in this picture.  Maybe she was just thinking about eating the turkey.

When Christmas was over last year, Abe decided he had had enough of our tree.  Once upon a time, roughly 14 years ago, it was a very nice, pre-lit tree.  Time had not been good to our tree and it no longer stood up straight.  It don't think it really stood by itself at all anymore.  It was in bad shape.  So we chucked it, thinking we would buy a new one this year. 
As December drew near, we weren't feeling great about spending money on a new tree.  Maybe our old tree could have made it one more year.  Regret.
Blessedly for us, my parents were giving away their big tree as they weren't planning to up a big tree anymore.  Ooh, ooh!  PICK ME! PICK ME!

 So, so thankful for a "new-to-us" Christmas tree!

It's so pretty!  Thank you Dad and Bev!