Thanksgiving and Christmas

Thanksgiving really was so much fun this year. We were at my Parents house and just had fun together. All the grand-kids were there including my very new little niece and I was so excited to see her. Derek just told me though that he wished that she was a boy. I think he is finally starting to grasp that he is the only boy cousin. We had an amazing dinner with so much food, but oh it was so good. Corey that morning had to replace his starter but I was so proud of him he did it in under 2 hours, I'm sure he could picture other ways to spend his morning but I feel very lucky that he can do some of those things and save us money. My sister Cedar and I did black friday shopping and this was my first experience ever and we went to Wal-Mart. That is one crazy place full of people who will do just about anything for the deal. Cedar and I were very successful though and got all the items that we wanted. I was so proud of myself!
Luckily now I'm completely done with Christmas shopping and all I have left to do is Christmas cards. Woo Hoo!! I've never been done this early and I'm absolutely loving it. Earlier this week for Family Home Evening we went to a concert put on by the Utah Symphony at Thanksgiving Point. It was a family friendly concert so we got to take Derek. He loves music so we wanted to see how he would do, and he did really well. He wasn't a super big fan of the "slow" Christmas songs he liked the faster ones that he could bounce too. We had so much fun, and were so excited to be able to go to something like that for a very reasonable price.
We had to buy a smaller tree that would fit in our apartment, and Derek had so much fun helping me put up the ornaments and I loved the fact that this tree was pre-lit and this tree was decorate in less time that it normally take me to just put the lights on the old one.
At this point we are pretty much done with the crazy Christmas things that happen like work parties etc. and Corey and I are pretty excited to just enjoy Christmas now. I've been trying to make sure that I focus with Derek more the real reason for Christmas and how Christmas is really a "Birthday Party for Jesus" this has helped a little bit in teaching him that because of this amazing person we have a party to remember the day that he was born. This has really made me reflect on the real reason for Christmas. I love the present and everything but honestly more importantly I'm realizing the love of giving. It just makes me happy to watch people to open something that I gave them. Hope everybody is having an amazing Christmas just like we are.