We met Santa! Quick Thanksgiving recap & look ahead...

We went to meet Santa last night!  Summer had this magical sparkle in her eye when she spotted him.  I got a short video of it and I want to hold on to that video forever.  She just starts pointing to him and saying "Look!" and it was so magical.  Evan was not as excited, but once we got a family shot then he was fine sitting on Dawn's lap instead. But before we get to Christmas...

A quick trip back to Thanksgiving.  We had both sides of the family together at my mom's house.  Here is a photo of the cousin's on my mom's side of the family that came back.  We had a total of 42 people... so you have to feed them and my mom made EVERYTHING.  It was so good. 

This is most of the main course.  A couple of the smaller dishes had back-ups to put out once one plate would run out.  My mom is amazing.  I have no idea how she managed to get it all perfectly hot at the right time.  

Our dessert plates are just as large as the main course plates, so there is a lot of dessert.  Cherry pie and black raspberry cobbler were my favorites. 

So naturally... I had to run it all off...I worked Thursday and Friday morning then we drove up to Cleveland to Dawn's parents.  The kids didn't nap in the car so while they took an afternoon nap I went out for a run and found a really nice bridle trail.  Pretty flat, but I want to go back and run the hilly sections more often.  Despite the recent rains it was not too muddy and I actually ran the whole thing in my road shoes: Altra Duos.

Finding a restroom along the trail is ALWAYS a plus! 

Saturday was THE Game against the team up north.  So we geared up for the game.

Lots of smiles and cheers with a win for Ohio State.  

We went out and looked at the holiday lights, but MAN it was chilly.  Fun trip up to Cleveland and we also got to enjoy some leftovers. Candied yams were just as good, if not better, reheated.

Here is a fun GIF of the kids and Dawn last night just after seeing Santa.  Love these three so much.  This is a very busy time of the year and I love capturing moments like this because they will be so big and grown up in a matter of no time...

Speaking of no time... Sunset keeps getting earlier and earlier.  I know some people want to make Daylight Saving Time a regular thing year-round, but that, IN MY OPINION, is a waste of time and resources of our politicians. If we decided to keep DST year-round(a new push from some legislators) then that means the sunrise today would go from 7:38AM and sunset would be 8:38AM.  Sure, the sunset would be 6:06PM.  In a couple weeks then the sunrise would be nearly 9AM...  Adjusting the time of sunrise/sunset will not extend the amount of daylight. Rant over.

More sun on the way for your Thursday! Grab the shades and the warm jacket today because our temps will start in the mid 30s and warm into the mid 40s with lighter winds with sunshine and a few clouds early and later today. More clouds tonight with lows in the mid-lower 30s. A few showers possible early Friday, mainly south, then slowly decreasing clouds through the second half of the day with highs in the mid 40s. More sun on Saturday with highs around 40. Clouds return on Sunday with a slight chance for a few spotty showers. Highs reach into the lower 50s on Sunday and more 50s on Monday, but scattered rain Monday. The cold front bringing the rain will pass during the morning hours on Tuesday. So Tuesday will start damp with mild temps, but falling temps and we will drop into the 30s and eventually 20s through the day Tuesday. As temps fall we could see a little wintry mix. Much colder Wednesday with highs in the mid 20s with high pressure trying to bring us some sunshine. Have a good one!
Best,
Andrew Buck Michael