Christmas Photo Day with the family

Well, the outside lights are up, not plugged in yet, but they're up.  I took advantage of the weather last weekend to get the outdoor portion done.  All that's left is getting some pine roping and finishing the front patio and hanging the big wreath on the outside of the garage.  That will be done (weather permitting) on the Friday after Thanksgiving so that evertything is ready to be plugged in on that evening.

Today if was time for a family Christmas photo.  We haven't done one before, but decided this year we needed some pictures with the new kids.  And since I'm not going to be able to be Santa at PetSmart (they changes how they're doing pet photos with Santa this year) I wanted to get my Father Christmas gown out and get some pictures with our kids.  You can't really see it, but the Father Christmas outfit is a floor length red velvet gown (for lack of a better word) with oversized sleeves and plush fur trim.  It's very impressive when I'm standing up (especially since I'm 6'4" tall.)

For the last few years I've been able to be Santa at a local PetSmart and have lots of fun showing off the outfit, but not this year.

So instead, I'll share some pictures with the kids.

From the left: Buddy Bear, Jacques, me, Truman, and Precious.

The bear over my right shoulder is wearing an outfit that my mother saved that used to be mine many many moons ago, a red plaid vest and shorts.  The bunnies over my left shoulder hang out on the couch when they're not filling in for the Easter Bunny.

And we don't want to forget:

Simba

I'll have plenty more pictures of the lights after Thanksgiving when I have them plugged in.  The tree will have to wait until December.  It doesn't go up until the first weekend in December.

TRADITION - can't mess with it.

This week I get to finalize the plans for various holiday activities at work, it will probably include a gift exchange, a wall to share pictures of holiday traditions, a giving tree with gifts for local children, a holiday sweater contest and maybe an extra surprise or two. (We've got to do something with homemade cookies so that I can make my Scottish Shortbread (As far as I'm concerned it's not really Christmas until I smell shortbread baking.)