Not that type of turkey

Thanksgiving has come and gone as have the family that came to celebrate with us. We had a great time and the kiddos especially liked having some of their cousins here.

As is usual for our family we had a grown up table and a kid table for Thanksgiving dinner. Livia managed to hold her spot at the adult table probably because she bribed Brett with giving him her piece of pie :)

I also did my usual Black Friday shopping but Wal-Mart was sneaky this year and did it at 12:01 instead of crazy early in the morning. I actually liked the late night start. My sister and mom didn't believe me that you had to be there when the pallets were sliced open to get some of the deals and they were both amazed at what Black Friday was like. For me I thought it was really good with people actually helping get things for others like a special size and type of PJ, etc. I won't post what I got as one thing is the major Christmas present for Ian.

In the afternoon on Friday, all of us took the five kids bowling. This was a first for Ian and Livia and they LOVED it. Livy was so tiny she didn't have to wear bowling shoes even. We had a ramp and bumper pads. No one had a strike so we didn't have any of that type of turkey over Thanksgiving.

Trial and Error

This year for our family Christmas pictures we opted not to have them professionally taken but rather used our backyard scenery (not the usual fake Christmas backdrop) and the timer mode on our camera. And to really change it up, we opted for very simple attire this year for our family photo. While I am not posting the finalists that may make it into our Christmas Card yet, here are some of the out takes.

The blowing raspberries pose....

Help me I'm falling pose....

And my personal favorite...the choking pose. I was trying to get Ian to rest his hands on her shoulders. Apparently we need to sing head shoulders, knees and toes more often in family home evening to review exactly where our shoulders are.

Harry Potter Complete

I finished the Harry Potter Series yesterday and it was a wonderful read. So good that I am now looking to buy the books (in hardback) and I never buy books. Brett and I have been discussing things from the books as he read them when they were coming out but somehow I thought they would be too dark for me and not want to read them. I guess my Twilight and Hunger Wars reads in recent years has softened me.

I kept hoping that Harry Potter would not die and Brett wouldn't tell me yes or no which I didn't really want him to tell me.

We watched the first movie last night and as is almost always the case, the book was definitely better than the movie. I am hoping to watch all teh movies in time for the first half of Hallows later this month in theatres--yes another gasp that we would go and pay to see it in the theatre.