thanksgiving, etc

We weren't sure what we were going to do this year for Thanksgiving. We had nearly made plans to go either to California or to Arizona, but it came down to unsure plans and/or expensive last-minute flights, and we decided to leave the traveling for December and January.

So we stayed at home and had a great Thanksgiving dinner with our friends the Bowens (who also saved our Fourth of July). The food was great and we enjoyed spending the evening chatting and playing games with them and their friends John and Meka.

Brooklyn was a little shy at first...

...but she warmed up a bit later since her buddy Sam was nice enough to play with her and let her borrow some of his old toys for a little while. He was also very excited to tell Laura about Star Wars, which we thought was awesome.

This year we started a new tradition -- a Thanksgiving tree. Every day in November we add something we're thankful for, whether it's something silly, something nice, or something special.

We did try some new recipes for Thanksgiving and they turned out quite well!

One of Brooklyn's favorite things this month has been Daddy's "bah-ket-ball."

Aunt Jenna sent a very cute Christmas plate and cup set for Brooklyn to use this month!

Laura wasted no time in getting a few Christmas decorations up the day after Thanksgiving. It was fun to have a helper this year -- last year Brooklyn got involved by letting us drape some lights over her bassinet or something.

She really liked the old Christmas countdown that Austin and his siblings grew up with.

And we weren't sure where to put these lights since we don't have a big tree this year, so we just plugged them in to show Brooklyn for a few minutes.

She fell in love with a little stuffed kitty cat ornament from Grandma Carole -- it meows a Christmas song and B likes to squeal (her interpretation of meowing) along with it.

She is way too smart. She found this ornament (also from Grandma Carole) in Daddy's box and made the connection instantly. Then she tried to play the little strings on the little ornament -- too cute!

This is our Christmas tree this year -- we decided to wait until we've got a place of our own before investing in real trees (or a realish fake one). If this looks humble to you, just imagine Austin coloring hole punch chips and pasting them on a car air freshener tree pinned to the wall when he was on a mission in Ukraine... :)

We went out Thanksgiving weekend to go see some lights in Bellevue -- it was a great excuse to get Brooklyn looking adorable in winter gear.

It was fun to see people out and about enjoying time with each other and seeing all the Christmas decorations.

We met up with our friends the Sparks and had a great time visiting with them and going out to dinner. Brooklyn and Isla looked like twins at the restaurant!

We stopped inside the mall to see the big Christmas tree...

...and see some of the Microsoft Store work that Austin helped direct for the Windows Phone launch this season.

Brooklyn has enjoyed a few things recently: soft blankets, hanging out on the couch with Daddy, and dancing to music -- whether it's from Daddy's guitar or the computer.

We tried to do our own little shoot to get a Christmas card photo. Austin thought this candid one as we were setting up was pretty darn cute.

We didn't pick this one to send out, but it was our second favorite, so we thought we'd post it here. This is what we call a "kissing sandwich" which we usually give Brooklyn before she goes to bed. :)