Sophie's World

2:30 PM (Central time): We had a good Thanksgiving. On Thursday morning, we flew to Houston (it would have been a 9-hour drive) to visit his sister Sabine (who lives about 90 miles northwest of there). Her three girls (all young adults) were there, and Randall's mom flew in not long after we did. We had such a good time while we were there. Sophie had never met her cousins, and Elisabeth hadn't seen them in years. They totally hit it off, and we spent a lot of time talking (and eating) and laughing. It was good to gather round each other and just be together. We had to come home Saturday morning (so Randall could preach on Sunday), but it was a good visit.

It snowed here while we were gone and has been cold ever since. I think we might have to get used to real winters and actually use our coats. It's a good thing I work at home and don't have to go out much!

After we got home, we packed up all our fall decorations and started getting out the Christmas decorations. One thing we did was pack away our china that we normally display in a small built-in cabinet in our dining area. In its place, we are displaying my grandmother's collection of Santas. I really enjoyed unwrapping each one, looking at it, and deciding where exactly to put it in my little display, remembering my grandmother with each one. Elisabeth really wanted to help me, but I so wanted it to be a private moment (plus I didn't want her to break anything). Once I got over myself, I let her help me some (but I still wanted to decide where to put each one--her arranging skills need some work). Maybe if I weren't such a control freak! We still have many boxes to go, and there will be plenty of opportunity for both girls to arrange lots of things.