Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate for 2007 November 24

We spent Thanksgiving at Grandma June's with John's family and his uncle's family. It was a lot of fun. We ate yummy food, then drove out to the farm to take family pictures. It was SO cold, we took pictures of both entire families and all the individual families in half an hour. Then we went back to Grandma's for pie. Aunt Michelle took pictures of all the kids with Grandma, printed them off and brought out foam Thanksgiving frames for them to glue and decorate. They loved it. We stopped by Jamie's on our way home for a while so we got home very late.

Last night was our Housewarming Party/Open House. It was a big success! Jon and Sharon came with their girls. Two couples from former wards with their babies. And John's entire family - we had a birthday party for Mom, Justin and Tyler after. Oh, and Erin's mom, Lynn, came too.

I made a cheeseball, fresh salsa, a veggie tray and penguins made out of cream cheese-stuffed olives. John made apple cider and pumpkin spice muffins (I made the cream cheese frosting). Everyone loved the food. It was fun to have our house filled with family. I like to pretend I can entertain, but I don't often get (or take) the chance, so this was really nice. We used crystal plates to eat and serve on, one of my punch bowls and one whole box of my punch cups (out of four).

Maggie actually conked out in her crib about 8:30 and slept through an hour and a half of chattering "white noise" from the kitchen. She slept pretty well last night. Today we did a bit of Christmas decorating. We're going to set up our mini-tree tomorrow and go next Saturday to buy a real tree. It's making me excited for Christmas and to see my siblings.