November 2013: Traditions: Thanksgiving & Simon Girls' Xmas Extravaganza

It's been a whirl-wind past few weeks, so let's take it back to where we left off, and that's right around the Thanksgiving time! I had to preach on Thanksgiving Eve, so we couldn't head down to the cities until late Thanksgiving Eve...(Random note...I am NOT a fan of wearing the clerical collar (for reasons we can discuss during a later post perhaps), but the Sr. Pastor I work with believes every pastor should wear one, so I have chosen to not pick this battle and wear one when I am leading worship and NOT wearing my alb (the robe that we wear).)... Anyway...like I was saying, after church on Thanksgiving eve, we headed to the cities to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with my mom's side of the family.

And what a great celebration it was!! Everyone was there...yes, everyone! That's all the Great Grandkids...

And all the grandkids...(that's the group that I'm in)...

And all the "kids", their spouses, etc.! Everyone!!

We even snagged a couple of pictures of my family while we were in picture-taking mode! My favorite part of all holidays is spending it with my amazing families! 

Thanksgiving this year was held at my Aunt Mary & Uncle Ward's house, and we all celebrated by enjoying one another's company, eating WAY too much food, watching some football, and finding out that my cousin Kelsi is pregnant with her 2nd child!!!!!!!! (Read Ryley's shirt!). It was definitely a great day of giving Thanks! Even Olivya got to enjoy some "Turkey Dinner". 

Yep, it was a great Thanksgiving!!! Happy Turkey Day Everyone!

Then, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it's tradition that all the girls on the Simon side of my family get together to have a "Simon Girls Christmas Outing". This year, we all headed to the Children's theater to see a great rendition (hilarious and kid-friendly with plenty of adult humor) of Cinderella!

Both Adelyn & Olivya did GREAT for the entire 2 hour play!!! They were both in awe with the music and the lights and the action (oh, and Olivya slept through 1/2 of it! ha.)

We all went out to lunch after the play and had yet another great year celebrating Christmas together! 

After a weekend like this, I can't help but to be in the Christmas spirit. I absolutely love (and am a sucker for!) Traditions and I love all that this next month brings! Bring on the Holidays!!!