We spent Thanksgiving day at my Aunt Jan and Uncle Kiah’s new home and it was a wonderful day! My cousin Tammy (their youngest daughter) and her husband built them a small home on their property, behind their pool so that they could be closer now that Aunt Jan is retired. It was an extra thankful Thanksgiving gathering this year as my Aunt Jan was diagnosed with melanoma in her foot a few months back. She had to have surgery and no one was sure what her out come would initially be. But praise be to God that she is cancer free now and you can’t tell she’s been sick a day in her life. I love this woman.

I don’t have a lot of pictures to share from Thanksgiving because I dug out my “old” Canon Rebel that is a film camera and have been using it a lot lately. I am trying to learn how to take better quality pictures and preparing myself for the day (in the far, far, far) future that I get the DSLR I’ve been dreaming of lately. Did you know that no one develops film in one hour any more? And it takes 7-10 DAYS for it to come back. Bummer. Waiting on the film is “teaching me patience.” Ha!

In my last post I mentioned the all night black Friday excursion I would be partaking in. Well, I had fun with my sister and Mandy. We laughed a lot and had some hilarious conversations about all kinds of things because at 2 a.m. standing out in the freezing cold waiting like a herd of cattle for the Belk employees to open the doors so that you can race in and hope to get your hands on a pair (or 2 or 3) of those expensive boots that they are practically giving away, you’re not exactly lucid! In fact, upon review whilest I was falling asleep sitting up at JC Penny, I decided that a person is not lucid to begin with if they are willing to endure such sleep deprivation and freezing conditions for a “good sale!” It was a fun memory to make but not one that I see myself making again in the near or distant future. And I told my husband that if I have a moment of insanity next year and talk about doing it again to please chain me to the wall!

My husband turned 30 the day after Thanksgiving this year and after we had some ice cream cake while LSU whopped the sooooie out of those Arkansas pigs, he and I enjoyed a night out together with no kids. It was refreshing!

In the land of Olivia, hers is now a play yard baby! Meaning she scoots around so much she wont stay on her pallet unless it’s in the play yard. She’s growing so fast, entirely too fast for this mama and daddy and I predict that she will be crawling by Christmas.

She also turned 5 months old last week and since we were in my mama’s neighborhood then we had Olivia’s half birthday party the day before Thanksgiving. It was fun, just like they all have been. I let Liv try a smidgen of cool whip just to see her face! She didn’t like it.

The Christmas season is upon us again and it’s hard to believe Christmas day is less than a month away! I’ve just about got all my shopping done and all our decorations up. We trimmed our "Charlie Brown" tree on Monday night and the kids were beyond excited! They kept asking "and who’s ornament is this one?” wanting to know the story behind each one and they think that all their ornaments are their “first one’s” because they each got like 5 baby’s first ornaments the year they were born! Olivia was enthralled by the lights on the tree and she gets so very excited every time she looks at them!

I’m not sure if there will be a Mizell Christmas card picture this year. I haven’t been able to get a picture of the kids that I am pleased with. And I refuse (yes, I am stubborn sometimes) to use a picture that “will do.” Call me silly but I can’t help it! And I have decided that the world will not stop if we don’t send out a card this year. Maybe we will do New Year’s or Martin Luther King or Valentines or even Easter or maybe just wait till next year because I refuse (yes) to act ridiculous more than one day a year (no comments) to try and get a good picture of my kids. Yesterday (in the freezin cold I might add) I hauled the kids out to the other church that Jon pastor’s where there is one of maybe 3 cotton fields that have not  been picked yet in the state of Georgia and made them sit in the middle of it while I screamed and yelled and did all kinds of ridiculous things to get Olivia to actually look at me. I wasn’t even shooting for a smile, just a look in my direction. Here’s a few that just will NOT do!

And here is what I think when I look at these pictures:
5. What was I thinking with the 10 times too big Santa hats?
4. Why in the world did I have a bow in Audrey’s hair if she had on a hat?
3. Why is there more dirt than cotton in some of them?
2. Was it really that important to get this picture and risk giving my children pneumonia?
1. And too bad that I wasn’t trying to get just a picture of James!