First snowfall and holiday love

I can't imagine a better way to welcome the month of December than with a light snowfall.  I woke this morning to an inch or so of snow on the ground and huge, slowly falling snowflakes.  The first snowfall of the year is always something I treasure and this morning I sat here with a steaming cup of coffee and just watched as it came tumbling down.

I love all the seasons, but there is always just something spectacular about winter that I love (I know, I'm one of the few that actually love winter).  Maybe it's being cuddled up with the ones you love inside a cozy house, all the baking and yummy food that comes with the season, snowboarding, ice skating, sledding or just the feel good feeling of the holidays.  Whatever the reason, I love this time of year.

One of my favorite things to do to welcome winter is getting everything decorated for Christmas.  We spent the day after Thanksgiving pulling everything out of the garage and decorating the house.  We've slowly been building our ornament collection over the years.  We've started the tradition of buying an ornament every time we go on vacation.  It's always a great trip down memory lane when hanging the ornaments on the tree.  I love looking at each one and having a memory or person associated with it.

These are the same bells that we had at our wedding.
Each table had a set of them hanging off
a chair.

The gingerbread man is one that my sister
made years ago in school.

Our wonderful friend's bought us this as a
wedding gift.  They're now getting
married this summer. :)

Saying"hi" in the reflection.

Ryan's manly ornament

Forever ornament from Angie after our engagement.

The moose from our trip where we
got engaged.

See what I mean about wanting to cuddle
up with those you love?

Do you love or hate winter?  Is there anything in particular that you are looking forward to this holiday season/wintertime?  

Prepping the bird.

I've been thinking a lot about Thanksgiving this year.  This year will be the first year that I am not able to spend it with the whole family and though it saddens me that we won't be able to spend it with our entire family, I'm determined to have a fabulous one with our little family.   We will be spending it in our home, just the 3 of us (me, husband and our dog), with a home cooked meal and some Christmas decorating.

I consider myself a relatively experienced cook.  I spend a lot of time perusing the web for yummy meals to try and usually have a pretty good basis of what I'm doing, however, turkeys a whole new experience. Standing at the grocery store alone trying to decide what turkey to get along with all the other turkey panicked shoppers was an experience in itself.  Let's just hope it turns out well.  And that it doesn't burn.

I've started a tentative menu plan:

• Roasted Turkey
• Artichoke Parmesan Sourdough Stuffing
• Cranberry Sauce
• Mashed Red Potatoes with Garlic and Parmesan
• Gratitude Dinner Rolls (with surprise messages for the hubby)
• Pineapple Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting (Mom's recipe from old church fundraiser cookbook)
• Uncle John's Cranberry Wine (Amazing! Discovered on wine tasting last week)

I'm thinking I'd like some snacks for during the day.  Any suggestions?  What are your Thanksgiving traditions?