An Arctic Blast, a Happy Thanksgiving, and a Fresh-Cut Noble

*Our Thanksgiving week was cold. And I do mean COLD. We got record lows, highs in the 30's, and gorgeous, glittering snow!!! It was our "arctic blast" here in Seattle. I have never had a white Christmas before, but we sure did get a white Thanksgiving!

*It's so funny when it snows in Seattle because it's like the whole world shuts down. As long as there's snow on the ground, everything pretty much comes to a standstill. Schools close, people don't go to work (unless you're my husband, who's a seasoned Utah snow driver), everyone stays home. It's crazy!

*My parents and brother flew in for the week, so we all froze together. Kirsten and Natalie had such a blast sledding in our cul de sac with Grandpa! Who says you need to put a sled on a hill to have fun? You just need someone to pull you around!!!

*Kirsten painted the snow with the neighbors one night!

*We had a delicious Thanksgiving! You might wonder how I cooked Thanksgiving dinner with a newborn to take care of. . . well, I didn't. My mom did pretty much all of it herself. We had all my favorites: the turkey, the mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, orange rolls, apple pie. I think if we just had orange rolls I would have been happy. All that other stuff was just a bonus. :)

*We took Kirsten to the movies with us on Thanksgiving day and saw Tangled. I loved it! I thought it was the best animated movie Disney has made in a really long time.

*I went Black Friday shopping. Some may call me crazy, but I love the excitement and all the great deals! I went to Target at 7 am, followed by the mall for many hours, and ending with Best Buy. I shopped for almost 8 straight hours! Exhausting, but fun!

*We went to a U-cut Christmas tree farm, which I had never done before! We always buy a real tree, but it was the first time I made Stephen cut one down for us himself. :) After brunch at Snoqualmie Falls lodge (yummy, but. . . never again with three young kids), we bundled back up and headed out in search of the perfect Noble fir.

*Brooke was outside with us for about 2 minutes. She spent the rest of the time in the car with my mom while the rest of us hunted down the tree.

*Finally found it!
Stephen cut it down all by himself.

*Natalie's new favorite thing to say: "Ho, ho, ho!" It's adorable!

*It took an entire DAY to take down all the fall and Halloween decorations and put up the Christmas decorations. This is not including decorating the tree and I even had my mom's help! Whew, what a big job!

*Kirsten lost interest quickly, but she did have fun putting a few ornaments on the tree. Mostly she loves the lights!

*We spent one evening in downtown Seattle, riding the Christmas carousel!
The girls LOVED it!

Is it any wonder that I LOVE this time of year!!!