I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I know we sure did. We started the holiday at Eric and Amanda's house for a great turkey feast on Thanksgiving Day. Gary of course took the famous Hayden platter.
Here Gary is showing Bill, Amanda's Dad, how to operate the contraption.
Looks like Bill might have the idea on how to hook up the bird.
Ta-
Da! Ready for the feast. And a fine feast it was. Thanks to Eric and Amanda for hosting such a wonderful dinner.
On Friday, the girls and I headed north for a two day tour to visit friends and family. We started out at our friend Mary's house for some holiday baking. Yes I do bake on occasion, and when it can be done with friends that is a bonus. Mary invited us along with her 3 sisters, her mother and a whole bunch of cousins. There were to many to count.
Here is a sampling of the counter. Some White Trash
chex mix followed by some yummy chocolate noodle thing cookie.
Kelly was making a cookie that had a snickers stuck in the middle with Mary's mom. I think she was just eyeing the candy bar in the finished product.
Kelly and Laura with Morgan decorating some sugar cookies.
Kelly was doing a one for the ginger bread man, one for me approach here.
Cutting out more cookies to bake.
After our baking visit, we headed down the road to Dad's house for the night. Enjoyed pizza and some of those freshly baked cookies for dessert. We finished up the night with a couple games of
Uno. We didn't keep score but I think I was pretty lucky for the night.
Saturday morning we were up and ready to go for our next holiday dinner. This dinner was hosted in
Herkimer.
Laura found one of
Ayla's dolls that she liked to play with while we were there.
Last visit for the weekend landed us at Jason and Jessica's for the night in
Oriskany Falls. One of the treats of the weekend was the air mattress. Who would have thought an air mattress could be so much fun. Laura slept on one at Grandpa's house and thought it was the coolest thing. This air mattress was a little bigger and both girls could sleep on it. Although they are sisters and tend to pick at each other.
Finishing out the visit with a ball game. Nice weather all around for the visits.
Gary took over the roll of stirring while I got the rest of the ingredients ready. 
Only, what happens when you run out of Karo syrup?? You call the Grandma baking crisis hot line and substitute with maple syrup. It didn't make a difference. We were 1/3 cup short. Maybe if we needed more it might have. 
Sunday was our day to get the tree. Just had to do a little housework before we could go. Not only does she shovel, she mops and folds laundry too. Voluntarily to boot!
Looking for that perfect tree....
Found it!
Not liking the selection of the tree.
While Gary took care of our tree the girls and I fed the deer some apples. Then we went inside to have some hot chocolate before we came home. It was raining and felt good to warm up. 
Hauling the tree in for set up.
Ready to decorate the tree. Well maybe, do you think she is still upset over the selection of the tree?
Laura had no trouble hanging ornaments. 
Grandma Sheila brought some Christmas cheer with her.
A family tradition is to have Gary's grandmother, Erma, dancing tree out for Christmas. This tree is motion activated and sings different holiday verses. 
Monday morning the girls opened an early Christmas present from our friends at Sixberry. It's hard to see in the picture but they each had Christmas hair ponies to wear. Kelly had Santa's and Laura had festive pom-poms. Very cute. 
This is a picture of luck being on our side. Monday night Gary came home to find the kitchen light dropped from the ceiling. When he took it apart he found that the ballast had started to melt in the light. This is after I cleaned out the light cover, but you can see where the melting took place. There was a thick layer of plastic that I chiseled out. This happened after our leaking roof this weekend. They say things happen in three's. Waiting for the third to happen.
Kelly found herself amused by shoveling snow. She cleared the sidewalk then put it back in the sidewalk. We are very lucky to have such a shoveler. Wonder how she will be with that in a month.
While Gary and Kelly were playing outside, Laura and I were working on her family snowman project for school. Laura loves to be creative.
Tuesday night was more fun in the snow. We couldn't get home quick enough for making snow angels. 
And taking a ride of course.
What a great time playing dress up. It is always fun to have a little sister that wants to play with the big girls, isn't it?
Happy 6th, Mom made a cake this year. 
Followed by the Witch who didn't want her photo taken. She was ready to go. 
Cut loose.... More like her.
Checking out all the goodies at Grandma Sheila's. 
