Thanksgiving Weekend

It was great having Katie home for Thanksgiving. It wasn't the first time she has been home since she went to school, but it was the longest and we made the best of it!

Wednesday evening Katie and I went to see "White Christmas" at the local community theatre. There is just something about getting all dressed up and watching a live production. What a fun way to start out the Christmas Season!

Thursday, (Thanksgiving), was business as usual in Canada. Ken had a dentist appointment, Katie ran out and did some errands and I went to the office for a few hours. The turkey went in the oven at around 3:30 and by 6:00 our home looked like Thanksgiving.

Katie had a couple of friends over and Pete and Holly joined us, as well.

Amy, Danielle and Katie

Pete and Holly

Friday we changed gears and got ready for our first annual Ladies Christmas Retreat.

We had about 40 ladies, which was great for our first year. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. Everyone seemed to have a great time. A wonderful speaker, lots of Christmas carols, fabulous food and a bunch of chocolate. What more could you ask for?

The Chocolate Village.

We took Katie back to school on Sunday. It is so nice that she is close enough that we can run her back and forth. Ken and I stayed in Buffalo and were tourists on Monday as we visited Niagara Falls State park on the US side. Our winter hasn't hit yet, so the weather was very pleasant. We could go right to the rivers edge above the falls.

The mist is where the water falls over. It was quite amazing.

Canada is just across the river.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I know, it is only November 20th. But while most of you are getting ready for Thanksgiving, I am getting ready for our first annual Ladies Christmas Retreat next weekend. We have about 35 ladies signed up, so I have been in the "Christmas" state of mind for some time now. The camp is almost decorated and our Chef has some wonderful things planned with food.... He is creating a Chocolate village, (I will post a picture after the weekend).

Our house is still Thanksgiving all the way......Katie comes home on Tuesday and we will take Thursday off to celebrate. We have so much to be thankful for and we do not want to sail through the day preoccupied with the weekend a head.

We love and appreciate all of you and wish you a Blessed Thanksgiving.

California

Ken and I had the opportunity to meet Lisa in Los Angeles last week. We had been planning the trip since summer and now it has come and gone. Isn't that the way it always works? We had a wonderful time. Lisa and I hit Disneyland for a couple of days while Ken saw to some business.

Lisa is probably my favorite person to do Disneyland with. I suppose it is because we like to do the same things. A perfect balance between rides and just walking around enjoying all the detail that Disney seems to perfect.

The only thing that we might disagree on is the Carousel. I Gotta get the Carousel picture. She humored me and we got it out of the way pretty much first thing.

It was November 1st and they did, in fact, have some Christmas decorations out. It was fun to reminisce and laugh and talk about so many memories. I don't know if it truly is the "Happiest place on Earth" but we sure have had some happy times there.

From LA we went to Oceanside. Lunch at the end of the pier.

We missed you Katie!!!!!

The next stop was Palomar Mountain. Ken and Katie had been back since we moved, but this was the first time for Lisa and I. It was great to see a few familiar faces and meet some new ones. We had dinner and spent the night with Steve and Marlene in Murrieta.

We ended our week in Indio near Palm Springs where we visited with good friends and Lisa golfed with Ken for the first time since she was 6. She may just be taking up the game again after all these years........