I'm beginning to think stores have the right idea...

There's something to be said about the stores putting their Christmas decorations up in October (OK, maybe earlier!) We started last week on Saturday after Thanksgiving. We got most of the outside stuff up and most of the inside stuff up, including the tree, minus the ornaments. Then, it sat that way for the entire week while I was in trial and Joe tried to manage the kids on his own. I swear, one of these days, we will be in the house at the same time! So, we finished decorating today...including adding more lights to the outside of the house. We then realized that Christmas is less than three weeks away and we will have to take our decorations back down shortly thereafter. Maybe we'll leave them up until March!

Thanksgiving was a LOT of fun. My parents and grandparents came in to town, along with my brother and his family. We spent lots of time outside playing a "football game"...although Austin informed us that the girls had to be cheerleaders! Kayla wasn't having much with the "cheerleading" and instead decided to get EVERY toy out of the garage. You would have thought a Toys 'r' Us blew up in our front yard!!

This is Kayla being interrupted in her quest to inventory every toy we own!

I think Austin was tired of waiting for his Daddy and Uncle D to figure out they were doing!

After Austin bored of the football, the kids went to the park with Poppie while we got "dinner" (although it has to be eaten before the Cowboys play at 3 and the Aggies play at 7!) on the table. Those kids sure have the grown ups wrapped around their little fingers. I think they all had a great time, but they were pooped after all of it. Kayla fell asleep on the floor outside of her room when she wouldn't stay in there to take a nap and Austin crashed on his bed wearing his Halloween costume (doesn't everyone do that on Thanksgiving?!) that he had put on to show everyone!

This is my grandfather, Poppa, who is also known as "Austin's best friend". Austin climbed up on his lap and asked me to take a picture, which made both of our days!

My grandmother was not feeling well, so we missed having her eat with us, but it was great to get to see everyone and give thanks for all we have in our lives.

We took the kids to breakfast with Santa at the church this morning and they had a really good time. Since it was the morning version (they also do dinner), the kids were encouraged to wear their pajamas. My children of course have matching pajamas (Thanks, Nonnie!) so they really got a kick out of it. At first, they didn't really want much to do with Santa, which I expected since Austin has always been afraid of him and I just figured that Kayla was at that age. As the morning went on, Kayla started to gravitate towards Santa and started to climb up to him. I convinced her to get in line and wait for "my next"...translation, "my turn"...and when we got to the front, she walked up and climbed up on Santa's lap on her own. I am constantly amazed at how different my children are! Well...not to be outdone by his sister, Austin went up there and got on Santa's lap, too! This was the first time he has actually gotten on Santa's lap since he was a baby!

This is Austin telling Santa that he and his sister never fight, but when they do, Kayla is the one who starts it! I was trying to hear what Austin was telling Santa he wanted, but I couldn't. When Santa asked Kayla what she wanted, it looked like she was growling at him! I later found out from my friend Amy that she was telling him she wanted a dinosaur and that Amy and Kayla had talked about it beforehand. I'm sure Santa thinks my children are crazy!!

Merry Christmas from the Comte kids!!!