Our first Thanksgiving as a family of four turned out pretty good. At work, we got to leave early the day before the holiday and I decided we needed some Christmas lights hung in our yard. I headed over to Menards, picked up a few boxes of LED lights that were on sale and went over to the tall pine tree in our front yard.

It was a little sketchy having the ladder leaned up on the tree twenty feet in the air. With the wind blowing and the ladder moving, I did my best to get as much of the tree in lights as I could. I have some plans for next year to make this better, but I’ll have to wait then.

Susan also got out of work early and we headed up to Culver’s for a frozen treat. It was nice to be out just the two of us, if only for a quick stop. We picked up the kids and headed home. Henry was super excited about the lights in the tree.

Last year we brined the turkey for the first time and it was sure tasty, this year was not a letdown, brining is definitely the way to go! After the kids went to bed, Susan and I got to enjoy delicious pumpkin icebox pie.

Yesterday, I pulled out the Christmas tree and it seems we may be looking to get rid of it. There were quite a few bulbs burned out and after I replaced one near the top, the rest of the tree dimmed and that one bulb got super bright. I ended up cutting and re-splicing the wire, it seems to be okay now… maybe we will get a real tree next year!

We hung a few ornaments on the tree and Henry was excited about the Thomas the Train ornament and having the tree up in general. Can’t wait to see what he’s going to be like when we visit Santa (hopefully soon!)