I never know if I’m going to do December Daily until December gets here.  It always depends on how I’m feeling.  How busy things are.  Things like that.  I don’t want to say I’m going to do it and then not.  So when December 1 hits if I grab my camera you know I’m going to do it.

It snowed yesterday so that made for some good photo opportunities.  But that’s not what I ended up settling on for my photo.  I don’t know how the rest of the album is going to go, but for Dec 1 I chose one photo.  Here it is…

Simple.  Easy.  Beautiful.  Stunning.  And encompasses a lot about this season.  Plus I love bokeh. ;D

For Fall Break we headed to sunny California and Disney.  I’m so glad we went.  I’m so glad it is over.  I think I’m on vacation sensory overload.  Five days in Disney and then one day in Sea World.  I’m just plain worn out.  The good kind.

There are so many good photos.  Here are just a few of my favorite…

Oh there’s just too many to pick from.  I didn’t even get to Sea World here. ;D

The girls are back in school.

No more lazy days at the pool.

Schedules and practices and homework and CHAOS.

Insert slow down.  Stop.  Sit.  Relax.

You may now go back to your life. ;D

…I like to make cakes…of the birthday persuasion…not because it is anyone’s birthday.  But because I LOVE cake.  So I guess that is a reason.  ;D  I made a white cake the other day in my bundt pan.  I thought it might be fun for Ava to decorate it with the frosting.  She was all over that.

It has also been snowing a lot here.  And it makes everything really pretty when it does.  Of course as always it doesn’t last long…which I love.  Still loving the weather here in Denver…how it gets into the 50-60′s and melts that stuff away.  Meantime, it makes for some great photos.

I also got Skitsy-bitsy to pose for me the other day.  Or at least not move.  He used to be really great at it.  He will probably always be better than Baxter.  But recently the sound of the auto focus in my lens makes him get up and get in my face. ;D  Weirdo.  So I got a good photo of him…but I love doing layouts of him when I cut him out and put him “other places”.  So here’s what I did…

Layout credits here.

Observations about Thanksgiving this year…

Having 2 ovens for Thanksgiving ROCKS.

The girls are old enough to help bake pies.

What did we do last year for Thanksgiving when I was so sick?  I don’t remember.

The girls eat more and more of the Thanksgiving meal every year. ;D

We don’t use the dining room much…but when we do I love having it.

We are watching It’s A Wonderful Life with the kids for the first time.  I LOVE this movie.

I love my family.

I am happy.

At the new house there is a gigantical maple tree out front (well there are several out back too) and the girls were so excited about this because they knew come fall we would have a yard full of leaves.  They have been raking and raking the last few days…making these huge piles to jump in.  Oh how I remember doing that as a kid.  And burying myself in the piles.  My girls do the same thing.  I love the smell of the leaves.  And I love it when they come inside with their hair full of leaves.

…my little Kia can 4-wheel.

But only to a certain point.  And not without major scrapeage on the side steps.   We took it on this trail…

After we decided to not drive it any further we parked and hiked.  We were looking for dinosaur tracks.  We’ve seen them before.  We found more this time (compared to 2008) because when you explore on foot you seem to find more than hanging out the car window.  Go figure.  ;D

Why is it that when you go to a destination it always seems to take f-o-r-e-v-e-r but when you are coming home it takes no time at all?  I’ve never understood that.  So when we drive to Moab…even though it is only about 6 hours…about the time we get to Idaho Springs…only 45 minutes from the house…the kids start saying, “Are we THERE yet?”  Yeah.  That gets really old really quickly.  ;D

Just a couple of favorite photos from the first day of our trip…

More to come.  ;D

We carved pumpkins tonight.  Such fun.  I love traditions. ;D

I don’t usually post while on vacation.  However.  This year we are staying in a hotel.  Just to shake things up.  And I find that staying in a hotel makes it a little more conducive to using a computer than staying at a campground does. ;D