Christmas Decorations

When I went to Mike's (in Columbus, OH) for Thanksgiving, I brought Christmas decorations with me. Since we're spending Christmas at his house, I wanted to make sure that we had a pretty tree. So, here we are, decorating.

Here's the tree fully decorated but without any presents underneath. Now there are many! I'll be sure to post more photos of us opening all those presents!

Mike has a window opening between the kitchen and the family room, and we thought it was a good place to display the mustached men. Mike's dad bought the middle one, which is a candy jar. I had the nutcracker one and the one on the horse-rocker. Now that these three are together, I thought names were appropriate: Francois (the nutcracker), Luigi (middle), and Hans-Peter (German rocking horse one).

Hans-Peter looks a little mad. Is it because he's on a rocking horse or because he's the smallest of the mustached men?! :-)

Thanksgiving at Mike's

Thanksgiving this year was at Mike's new house, and we celebrated the first big meal with a nice bottle of champagne (or sparkling wine, I didn't check the label). So, here's everyone raising their glasses for a toast. Mike's mom and dad are on the left, and his brother Steven and Steven's girlfriend, Alison, are on the right.

Now isn't this a nice photo -- men in the kitchen getting the coffee and dessert ready? I thought it was cool, because we women were talking at the table, and the Reale men were in the kitchen.