Rounding out the weekend...

On Friday morning, Aaron took us to the new Cal Ranch Store so he could get a permit to cut a Christmas tree.  We always enjoy the farmer's supply type stores.  In the afternoon, Steve and Aaron took most of the kids and went to the mountains in search of a Christmas tree.  It was sunny and beautiful and they brought back a wonderful tree.

 The kids put on the Christmas music, mostly sung by David Archuleta as they are devoted fans, and proceeded to decorate the tree and the house for Christmas.  What fun it was to enjoy this activity with them.  Everyone has their favorite part of the decorating.

 It was later that evening that Steve and I set off for a starlit walk in the cold evening air.  We were dressed for the climate and not for jihad activities.

 In between events. the kids played songs for us on the piano and Brinley played her violin.  We love to hear our grandchildren playing music.

 Here the boys put up the nativity set.

Anna put Christmas decals on the windows and the kids took turns placing other Christmas decorations around the house.

 The tree was really beautiful when they finished decorating it.  Great job!

 Saturday morning before we left to return home, we were able to watch Anna's basketball team give a routing to a rival team.  They won 30 to 10.  Anna did a great job on both defense and offense.  We loved being able to watch her score.

 We arrived back in CV to 4-5 inches of snow.  Our kind neighbors helped us with their snowblower as soon as we drove up in front of the house.  We managed to bring the tree upstairs, do some errands and go on our walk.  We left the decorating for Sunday when Jenna and Korinne could assist us.  It was worth the wait.  Thanks, girls.  We are all festive now.

 Britton and Hilary preferred to check out books to decorating.   We all enjoyed one more round of turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, salad, asparagus and yams.  It's time to change the menu soon.

The Rest of Thanksgiving

 Our Thanksgiving day wouldn't be complete without our annual bowling event.  Brent had arranged with the bowling alley to open an hour early just for our group.  It was fabulous to have the whole place to ourselves.  We used six lanes and everyone who wanted to bowl was able to have plenty of opportunities to throw that ball.

 Aaron barely beat Adam during this game.  He was the overall champion of the day as he won both games for the men.

 Several of the women broke 100 so in spite of our gutter balls, we were pretty happy with that.

 After bowling, we returned to Kathy and Brent's for more food, dessert and pinatas.  We had two pinatas.  One for the younger kids without blindfolds and one for the older kids with blindfolds.

 Tally and Oakley wanted a mouth full of whipped cream and Brent happily obliged with his spray can.

Steve was such a good sport that he was willing to drive some of us shoppers to several stores on the way back to Heather's house.  So late on Thursday night, we trudged through cold and snow to Kohl's, a beauty supply store and the mall.  Brinley, Anna, and Heather did most of the shopping.  Steve and I waited in the long checkout line and held a place which saved at least 30 minutes or more.