All ready for Christmas

Finally done with my tree!

Almost done

Normally, I put up Christmas decorations while I am off work for Thanksgiving.  Since we would be out of town, I thought about doing them before we left.  That didn't happen!

So Monday night, I pulled everything out of storage.  I did manage to get the tree up and plugged in - no ornaments.

Last night, I put out all the other decorations.

Merry Christmas blocks

Cute ornament tree

Countdown blocks

Stockings

Decorated mantel 

Nativity

Peppermint pillow

This weekend, Caitlin and I will do the ornaments.  She always helps me and I love our tradition.

Each year, I try and get a few new ornaments that fit my red, gold and white color scheme.  These are my new ones this year.  Thank you Target!!

Destin for Thanksgiving

The second we got there, Alaina wanted to go build a sand castle at the beach.

So we did, even though the sun was setting.

Such yummy sunsets!! 

I can't believe Caitlin got in that cold water!

One morning we woke to see this -

And this -  

One of these people was not original!

We enjoyed the heated pool every day!  Caitlin did tricks.  She jumped from my shoulders.  She also learned how to let Rusty throw her and turn a back flip.

Alaina finally realized that she doesn't need to hold on to me in the water if she has floaties on.  This was a huge breakthrough for her.  She was so excited to be independent in the pool.  Instead of clinging to me, she would push me away and want to swim on her own.  Big step for her!

We also enjoyed some treats.  This was Alaina's first ice cream sandwich.  She got it EVERYWHERE!!

I mostly enjoyed the view.  I am so retiring somewhere with a view like this!!

On one of the days, I took a glorious nap on the couch, with the ocean as my view.

It was amazing!

New Office

I just got a new office at work.  I love my window!

There's a lot of changes coming at work.  I'm excited about the changes.  It will bring more work probably but some great opportunities as well.

Family Portrait?

Caitlin loves to draw, especially while at church since it is something she can do without noise.

She's pretty good at it.  She will ask me what to draw and I try to come up with some strange combination (ie an elephant on a skateboard.)  After I was exhausted of creative ideas, I told her to draw our family.

Here's the masterpiece.  What's up with my nose?