The holidays are upon us...

We celebrated a little belated Thanksgiving with the gang from Dayven's office this weekend. Since Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, everyone was working this week (with the exception of Dayven who took a vacation day to celebrate with us). One of the other Cat families hosted a potluck Thanksgiving feast so we could celebrate with all of the other ex-pats who had to spend another holiday without family. We are quite a diverse crew - we had 25 in total - with mostly Americans, a couple of Canadians and a few from Russia, Poland and the Netherlands. We had a great time and of course, ate way too much...again.

Who needs a refrigerator when it's -5 outside?

We also decided to get a jump on our Christmas decor this weekend. Last year we bit the bullet and bought a fake pre-lit tree. We were having mixed feelings about it because we loved having a real tree, but figured a fake one would allow us to enjoy it longer without the worry of it self combusting. We assembled it all and lovingly arranged our ornaments, something I always enjoy. We are collecting ornaments from all the places we've visited and lived so each one has a special memory and story behind it. We plugged her in and the effect was magical. The glow of this new addition to our living room proved to be magnetic for Wyatt. He couldn't take his eyes off of it and wanted to personally examine every ornament. It's going to be quite a task to keep him from toppling the whole thing over before Christmas. We also made an attempt at taking our family Christmas photo, but not everyone was cooperating, as you can see from the photo on the right.

Yes, we had a great weekend, but the holidays are always a little sad when not spent with family. Still, we have so many reasons to be thankful this Thanksgiving. I try to stop and give thanks every day for all my blessings. I'm so thankful for my wonderful husband and best friend, my beautiful little boy, our health and the health and happiness of my family and friends. We are truly blessed. I hope you enjoyed your holiday, however you spent it, and had a chance to reflect on all the reasons you're thankful.

Dayven is off tomorrow for a 10 day trip around Illinois. Wyatt and I decided we didn't want to hang here alone so we're flying to Peoria to meet up with him. We're excited to spend some time with family and do a little shopping that doesn't take such a hit on the wallet. As my friend Marta pointed out, after shopping in Canada, every store in the states is like an outlet store!