Thanksgiving, Santa, Ears Pierced

We had a fun and productive Thanksgiving weekend. We spent one day for Thanksgiving, one day for Christmas (seeing Santa, getting up lights, tree, and decorations), and one day for painting :)

We had Thanksgiving dinner at our house. Pete and Andrea, Alexa, Elli and Adam came to spend the day with us. We had a great time.

The guys just hanging out downstairs.

We all played Apples to Apples and a fun game of Bingo that Andrea brought.

The day after Thanksgiving, we have a tradition of going to the University Mall to see Santa arrive on the helicopter. It is usually pretty cold, but this year was actually not too cold. It's just when you are standing around waiting for so long, you start getting colder. This year we were even able to get the free cookies and hot cocoa.

 Mom getting kisses from Maddi. Yum!

Audrey trying to stay warm.

 Here it finally comes!

After we saw Santa, we went in to the mall to get our new ornament. This year it was easy to choose since we got the "New House" ornament. Then we went over to Claire's to get Audrey's ears pierced. She has been asking for a long time, and it just hasn't fit into our schedule. So now she will have the studs in just long enough to get new earrings for Christmas.

waiting to get started and trying not get too nervous

Here's the dot with the marker. Ready to go...

 Audrey was so brave. She didn't cry at all!

She did get more worried for the second ear, but was a good sport. She was so excited to have her ears pierced.

We are so proud of you, Audrey! You were so brave!