Holy Moses, I am behind again. But wouldn't it be weirder if I was blogging events sometime around the time they happened? Yeah, totally weird, so let's not change horses mid-stream. I'm starting small here, just some mundane stuff that took place in November before we went to Utah for a month. Mostly pictures, so here goes!
For Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to have the Phillips come visit good old Greencrest for the holiday. Everyone on the block (and the honorary Greencresters the Stevens) made an insane amount of food and gathered at our house for the day. Not sure what I was thinking volunteering to host it at our house, maybe that I'd be forced to clean it. Well, either way, it was a blast. We had 30 people in the house at one point and yet it didn't feel too crowded. Miracle.
So many pies!
Kids playing in Eleanor & Winston's room.
A few days later I put Winston in the bouncer so I could run some laundry up and down the stairs without him being upset. On one of the trips down I found this.
Ohhhh, my poor baby! He fell asleep jumping. I was trying to get another angle and bumped the wall and he jerked awake by jumping. Like his legs got disrupted mid-signal. Such a cutie!
And a few days after that we had our ward Christmas party. I loved that they held it so early in the month before all the post-grad crowd take off. Here are three of my favorite girls.
And three more favorites.
The Primary kids sang two numbers. Cute Eleanor thought that she was supposed to be up there so she followed them all on stage. She's there in the red dress.
My three cuties.
Eliza got her face painted. Don't get me started on missing Eliza...
And Eleanor decorated a cookie.
While Winston smiled at everyone he saw.
Deaths all around! -That's for Megan, Tommy and family. We may use the phrase "You're killing me!" a bit too much when describing something cute. Thus, Winston is often "killing people" with his smile and dimple.
At home, Eleanor likes to amuse Winston as best she can.
Peekaboo! I wish I could have gotten his face, he just adores her.
As we got out our Christmas decor, Eleanor found some rather large socks. Ha ha.
All of our "real" Christmas stuff is in storage in Utah, but I keep finding things to make or buy at thrift stores here in Michigan. I only got to enjoy the decorations for a few days, but Clayton stayed for two weeks alone during finals, and we wanted it to be festive for him. So! We hung ornaments in the foyer...
(Ok, so these were a whole lot prettier in real life.)
...glittered some old bulbs from the thrift store...
... and decorated our honest-to-goodness Charlie Brown tree. I know, it's pathetic. I bought it our first year here as I couldn't stand not decorating even a little for the holidays, but I didn't want to spend too much. This tree was $2.50 and looking back, I think I should have splurged for the 4 foot one that was $6 at the thrift store. Oh well, a penny saved, right? (All of you who know me, stop laughing.) The 16 inch strand of green lights really makes it look spectacular, don't you think? I'm pretty sure Eleanor gets the magic of Christmas from all this splendor. 
Well, next up will be posts about our Utah trip!
