What Black Friday??

This will be the second year in a row that A.J. and I have managed to do almost all of our Christmas shopping online. It's a beautiful thing! No postage. No crowds. Still get those Black Friday deals. What's not to love about that?

So while the majority of our fellow Americans were out shopping the day after Thanksgiving, we got our beautiful Christmas tree (fraser fir, of course). Once the tree was securely in it's stand and watered well, we let it "rest" and gave it time for the branches to let down (as of now, it still only has lights on it - to be trimmed later this evening). 

What does a family do on a lovely afternoon then if not shopping or trimming the family tree? Well, the boys had a blast doing this...

 Well, maybe they didn't have a blast with this part of it! Don't feel too bad for them though - I did the bulk of the raking to make the giant pile of leaves in front of the playground rock wall!

It may be the official beginning of the Christmas season, but we're still enjoying a little bit of autumn here in Texas! Happy weekend!! :)