I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We did. All the food was delicious and with my obsessive planning and advance preparation, getting food ready and on the table wasn't crazy. We did forget to make gravy, but since the turkey was moist and the mashed potatoes had plenty of flavor thanks to the chives, garlic and cream cheese, gravy wasn't really necessary. My main complaint was that we wound up with very few leftovers. At least, very little leftover turkey and my in-laws when snacking only ate the turkey, none of the leftover side dishes. We wound up making one meal out of dressing, spinach gratin and sweet potato casserole a few days later.

The Boy insisted that the tree go up as soon as the last crumb of pumpkin pie was eaten. We have a new tree this year. My mother is the queen of bargain finding and happened across a pre-lit 9-foot tree last Christmas Eve for $20 at Lowes. My parents don't celebrate Christmas, so she got it for us. We have 11 1/2 foot ceilings in the main rooms of the house, so it isn't too tall and by luck it also happens to be a very slim tree which works out well since we have more headroom than floor space. We didn't get it decorated until Friday, much to the Boy's dismay and we haven't gotten around to putting any lights outside. We usually hang some garland with lights on the porch rails, but haven't decided if we have the energy this year.

The year The Boy turned one, I decided that almost all of our ornaments would forever after be metal or wood and generally unbreakable. As I watch my children re-arrange them for the millionth time and scatter more on the floor than there are on the tree, I'm glad. We do have a few special ones up high that they can't reach -- at the top of this tree they are higher than I can reach.