It's the little things

They say it's the little things in life that make you happy.

I'm not at all embarrassed to admit that's true...at least for me.

We spent an absolutely wonderful few days visiting the in-laws in Kentucky. Everything was excellent, 'cept the night I spent throwing up my guts. Not sure what happened-- one minute I was fine, the next I was in the restroom hugging the toilet and asking Craig to bring me a ponytail holder.

Other than that minor 12-hour inconvenience, the trip was lovely.

Craig's Aunt Barb came down from Northern KY to visit and when we spent time together on Friday, she gave us this:

I am ecstatic over this. I'm not kidding.

Barb works for a candy-decorating/wrapping company that packages treats. She gets to design the wrappings, containers, holder, etc for all kinds of stores (Target, Wal-Mart, Williams-Sonoma). This also means that just about anytime she visits, we get to enjoy the fruits (and sweets) of her labor.

When she handed me this most fantastic box of sprinkles, I literally jumped out of my chair in excitement. It may be because I was wanting Christmas sprinkles (to use with an upcoming Elf on the Shelf venture) and I refused to pay money for something I don't eat (I don't eat sprinkles, sorry Barb) OR because I know that once I've used all of the sprinkles, I'm going to have a fabulous tackle-like box to reuse as I see fit.

Seriously, as I'm typing this, I still have a huge smile on my face.

I'm also very happy, and thankful, for the PJs that the in-laws gave RJ. One tradition we're hoping to start is to give RJ a pair of winter/Christmas PJs on Nov 30th of each year so that on Dec 1st, when we're celebrating our North Pole breakfast, he'll look snazzy for the million pictures I'll inevitably take. Cute, huh??

While in KY, we had a wonderful "Friendsgiving" dinner with three of our favorite college couples, Aimee and Johan, and Tim and Emily, and Seth and Erin. Even though Em is NINE months pregnant, she still graciously invited us (and, collectively, our 4 kids- plus their singleton) into their home for a full course meal. Thankful doesn't begin to describe how I feel about having such special friends in our lives. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera and I'm terrible at carrying my phone with me, so I didn't snap ANY pics of the gathering.

The grateful spirit of the holidays, the anticipation of the upcoming magic of the season, and the gathering of family and friends makes for some of my favorite days of the year.

Oh, and Connie sent us our holiday bucket list. More to come on that.....it's fabulous.