Thankful and Twinkly...

Well that was nice.

The Thanksgiving feast with Grandma and Grandpa Gardner and Aunt Nett followed by a movie at the "movie featre" and a weekend full of fun including a kid-only sleepover at Grandma's (which meant a date night for the 'rents... yeeeessssss!) and a fun family bowling outing.

A satisfying list of to-dos that we got to mark a heavy check mark next to, including:  hanging Christmas lights, putting the trees up and decorating them, and a side bonus of one final lawn mow while the sun warmed our shoulders before the snow flies.

The big man hates hanging lights but he loves me.  :)  And here is the proof.

Fine these little gents might have something to do with his begrudging willingness too.  

Yes.  This whole "sticking close to home thing" was A-OK with us.

And let me introduce you to the beginning of all the magic...

This time of year there is so much goodness to soak in.  And our new "brother tradition" is among the top of my favorites so far...  The boys selected one another's names from a hat and I got to take them one-on-one this weekend to shop for a gift.

When little fingers wrote out names on gift tags?

Oh.  My heart skipped a beat.

They are so excited to give a surprise to one another and I'm so happy I'm about to burst.

Christmas is full of some of my favorite traditions, but mostly, it's full of my favorite people.

And a lot of twinkling.

Which can never be underestimated...

More holiday twinkle to come.

You've been warned.  :)