It all started with a Japanese steak house

Once upon a time there was a Japanese steak house in the good old town of Ogden. Inside that Japanese steak house was a basement. And in that basement was a gift shop. And what do you suppose they sold in that gift shop? Chop sticks, you say? Well, actually I don't know, but they sure had a heck of a lot of Christmas trees. Yes, we bought our Christmas tree at a Japanese steak house. I think it is rather random. The nice Japanese lady who ran the gift shop was just that...nice. She thought our little Ellie was so cute and kept talking to her, and eventually gave Ellie a necklace to take home for free. Wasn't that nice? She showed us how to string our lights perfectly, and gave us a great deal on our tree. Better than any Black Friday deal I would even wager. So we bought our Christmas tree, and it sat in our basement for a few days until THE APOCALYPTIC STORM hit on Tuesday. We tried to get the leaves raked before it hit Tuesday afternoon, but alas, we have about 4 piles of leaves buried under snow. Ok, so the storm really wasn't apocalyptic, but the weather service sure made it sound like it would be, but it sure made us feel all cozy inside our home. On a side note, as first time homeowners, we did not have a shovel. Brad ran over to the local hardware store to grab a shovel before the storm hit, and some garbage bags (part of the reason our leaves are covered by snow now) and just about every person in the store was buying a shovel. I thought it was a funny story. I guess we weren't the only ones unprepared. So yes, our home was so cozy and warm, we just decided we needed to put up the Japanese Christmas tree. So we did. We left it for a few days to go visit Arizona where we ate turkey on Thanksgiving with the Winter Family minus 2 siblings (we missed you Kristi and Milly), had some Black Friday fun, and enjoyed good company. Ellie had her first plane ride and she was a champ. She learned how to be loud while we were there too :) We had so much fun in Arizona, we didn't want to come back again to real life. We did come home, and decided to decorate the tree Monday night for Family Home Evening. Then we talked about gratitude. We love our Christmas tree and all of its ornaments (most of which are homemade). We are really looking forward to Ellie's first Christmas. So much to do before December 25th!

The Cuzzies having fun together in Arizona. Sorry no pics of adults. I'm a bad picture taker. I really wish I had pictures of the polar bear challenge.

Our lovely Christmas tree

(and Brad's foot. It's hairy, but you can't see that)