Good times had in November - Posted by the Mrs.

Before Christmas flew by we wanted to make sure to get our November post in! I know a lot happened in November but we'll just stick to the basics...THANKSgiving!!! We traveled to D.C. again only this time the Cramers came along too (quite fitting really considering that it was Steve's aunt and uncle whom we were going to visit)!
We had such a great time, those Reese's really know how to dance, make smores, entertain, host, tour, and have a blast!

Family picture in the pile of leaves Uncle Brooks raked for us all to play in. I love the simple joy that comes from a pile of leaves...it's classic. (oh, and don't mind my "morning hair-do")

Here's our monkey discovering leaves, he thought they were pretty amazing.

Don't you just love that lumberjack hat? He has a cute matching sweatshirt and gloves to go with it.

This is the whole gang: on the back row there's our little family, then Uncle Brooks and Aunt Gwen. On the front row we've got Tiffany, Steve, Cody, Kylee, Tammy (Steve's mom), and Nikki (Steve's cousin).

Uncle Brooks gave us the coolest tour ever of the Pentagon. We were able to see all the things that everyone else gets to see and then we got to see more! We saw the 9-11 memorial and the big redone section of the Pentagon where the plane crashed. Photography wasn't allowed except for the above and below pictures you find here. The one above is set up for the purpose of taking pictures...we aren't really addressing the press (though Bob is very convincing :).

This picture is one of those unique things we got to do that even Uncle Brooks didn't even plan. We were passing by the office of the chief of staff of the Air Force Norty Schwartz, where the coronel in charge of the office gave us a tour of the cool things in the office like awards, a bible signed by all the chief of staff, and the cool blue carpet.

Duncan and I are hanging out right before THANKSgiving dinner! We are so excited. Gwen let us eat on her beautiful fine china...actually, they eat off of fine china all the time!
You see, when they lived in Germany, Gwen would often take trips to the factory where the china was made. She would sift through the "damaged" bin (microscopic flaws basically) and find perfectly nice china for a couple dollars a piece. Her mom had a saying that "Rich people ate on paper plates, poor people eat on china."

I really liked that phrase because to me it means celebrating the everyday as a "special" occasion and not being afraid to use the fine china!

(We actually don't own any fine china but it applies to anything nice in general really)

I sometimes need the reminder that material things are just things, regardless of how much they cost or where they came from. Those "things" can become great memories and traditions for me and my family but they have to get used in order to be such.

This is the amazing SMORE bar I was talking about earlier! Sugar in so many wonderous forms...specifically chocolate! We talked, laughed, and cuddled in blankets around the fire pit!

Sitting around the fire pit.

Cody and Duncan have matching Monster Truck shirts...and they didn't even plan to where them on the same day. It was a Kodak moment.

Here's the monkey hanging out in his toy bin and wearing the beanie Bob gave me from Argentina. Time to break out the snow clothes!!