Thanksgiving! and decorating for Christmas! (lots of pictures to follow!)

We had a very blessed Thanksgiving! We were able to spend a day or so in Delphos with my side of the family, Wednesday I went shopping with my sister (Sydney-free courtesy of her dear dad and my dear ol' dad!) and we had a wonderful time together. Thursday we headed out for Manhattan where we could spend most of the day with Joe's side of the family. A few years back we switched our "rotation" so that we could be there with our family when (most) everyone else was there with theirs. The holidays are some of the very few times that all of his siblings and their families can get together and we wanted Sydney to experience her Helget cousins--every single one of them. :) It took her awhile to warm up but before long she was coloring with Nicklas and reading with Gabbie..and even snuggling with Uncle Jim!

Getting her fingernails painted by Aunt Bailey!

That afternoon we headed back to Delphos where Sydney got to spend lots of time playing with her cousin Addison. This is probably one of the first times (that I remember anyway) the girls actually playing together...before they would each do their own things but this time with the help from Aunt Traci they warmed up to each other pretty quickly and before long they were tearing up Grandma Dodo's front porch! It was so much fun watching them play together. Each Thanksgiving for the last seven years (according to my grandma) some of the grandkids would put up the inflatable snowman in Grandma's front yard. So Traci and Justin got that started when someone mentioned that the little girls might like watching it go up (with the lights, etc. and who doesn't love a snowman?!) So we bundled up the little girls and headed out. Oh my dear Sydney started crying at the sight of the frightening snowman which got Addison wondering about it too...Addison bless her heart finally stopped fussing but Sydney kept right on going. Aunt Rhonda's idea to sing "Frosty the Snowman" was a great one, but only made us grown-ups feel excited for Christmas--it meant nothing to the little girls! :) Once we got inside both little girls were so worried about the snowman they kept hanging out by the front door and asking us about it. He's far less frightening behind a glass door apparently!

Playing with Addison behind Dodo's curtains!

Waiting for Aunt Bailey outside the bathroom!

We headed back to Ottawa Saturday afternoon and got back that evening at Sydney's bedtime. (We forgot her pacifier when we left so thought we'd try not offering it anymore--she did okay while she was there in Delphos but bedtime still isn't the same here at home!!) The next morning I was SO excited to start decorating for Christmas! Joe even offered to get up with Sydney but honestly....I don't think I could have slept! So I got Syd, he went back to sleep, and we started unloading everything! I took out my Christmas village pieces first and Sydney helped me carry them in to the kitchen. She was such a big girl--it was so fun to see her being such a great helper! By the time we had it all unloaded Joe was up and it was time to start decorating! While Sydney helped Joe eat his cereal and watch some cartoons, I set up the village and some other decorations downstairs in the living room. Then Joe graciously brought up the tree and it's tub of goodies and we started putting it together! Sydney was so cute helping me "fluff" the tree and fix the bows that were left on. It was SO much fun! We turned the t.v. on to the Christmas music channel and sang Christmas songs while we decorated. Sydney even danced a little bit while taking a break from fluffing the tree! Next step was to put the ornaments on and that took a bit of work but she finally got the hang of it! I still haven't moved the two red ornaments from right next to each other. :) Here are some pictures from our fun-filled morning! It was so much fun having Sydney help--I feel so blessed; it was truly just a joyful time!



Here is a picture of Sydney's tree; it has my collection of Barbie ornaments that my mom started for me 15 years ago! (Wow that sounds like a really long time ago!!! :) )

Next project on the agenda: GINGERBREAD MEN cookies!!