It's the most wonderful time of the year

In Mommy School we have been learning more about the first Thanksgiving. We are thankful for this darling Mayflower to help explain the difference between pilgrims and pirates.

Ignore Ava's kooky face in this picture. To celebrate my 28th birthday Josh created an evening of my favorite things. (Feel free to hum the Sound of Music soundtrack as you read through these next few items.)

You can all keep your birthday cake, I'll have my candles in fried pickles - thank you very much.

A cozy fire and Carino's wedge salad

A rearranged living room for maximum viewing pleasure

White Christmas

a Christmas puzzle, and a sweet friend to wrangle Ava and snap pictures.

The. Perfect. Birthday.

Thanks love.

The combination of time change and late nights without HLS have left me slightly gloomy, especially after all the birthday spoiling. Keep the Bave and I in your thoughts as we ramble around on these cold, dark nights, lonely and missing Josh. Oh, I guess you could keep him in your thoughts too as he runs the finals gauntlet.

I found this darling polar bear cookie, and decided to do a little of my own spoiling.

On Thursday a sweet friend, Katy, invited us to pack some shoe boxes for the Samaritan's Purse Christmas mission.

Ava decided to pack a box for a little girl her age. She worked diligently on the informational letter to our recipient.

Beautiful babies, shiny paper, and charity? Definitely time well spent.

I found 'ginormous' (as Ava affectionately called them) marshmallows at the grocery store this weekend. Visions of World's Most Fabulous Sweet Potato Souffle popped into my head, so of course I had to buy them.

On Saturday night we hosted a dinner for some dear law school friends, the Bunsons, and two international law students. It was a fun, informative, and delightful evening. We did our best to answer their questions about the US, while Marie told us about Austria and Jennifer told us about Switzerland. The Bunsons, like us, are very interested in traveling and working abroad. How fortunate to have two experts at the law school this semester.

When I mentioned the 'ginormous' marshmallows both ladies gave us confused looks. They had never eaten a marshmallow, much less a smore. It took all of four seconds for us to remove the stove grates and find the roasting skewers.

Jennifer was a quick learner.

A little lesson in The Smore Smoosh

Marie discovered the only downside of smores - the sticky.

The Bunsons also happen to be the parents to one of Ava's best friends. We hadn't seen much of the girls until the scent of sugary marshmallow wafted upstairs.

Later, Ava and G entertained our guests with the story of Thanksgiving. Our little ones were amazed to know the story better than some 'grown ups'. Turns out folks in Austria and Switzerland aren't as familiar with Squanto and his 'pirate' friends.

My favorite hostess gift ever - real Swiss chocolate!

On Sunday evening we headed to OWC to help decorate for Christmas.

The greenery fluffing crew

Braving the prickles

Is Missy not the cutest WOP ever?
(Wife of Pastor, not to be confused with a POW. Though I guess there are some similarities.)

Merry and bright

Of course the Locketts were all decked out in Christmas.

Untangling lights

Don't you wish you had this crew to help with your tree?

We headed outside to put up the Advent sign.

Sure, my guns were in high demand.

Okay, okay - Josh had to help a little. See that tongue out? No doubt where Ava gets that concentration trait.

Finally, all the kiddos helped finish decorating the big tree in the atrium. We are ready for Christmas at church.

We Three Locketts have the privilege of lighting the first candle of Advent next Sunday. When I was growing up in church, I always loved that part of the Christmas service. I can't believe I'm old enough to have a little family to light the Advent candle.
What a magical, mysterious thing this life.