Part of the fantasy of lights parade on Friday night
Lily and Mary snuggle up to watch the parade
Just part of the candy table for gingerbread houses
Elijah, Emily, Mary, Dylan(?) and Noah(?)

We are home from our flurry of a weekend in Michigan. As I look back over the pictures (and maybe based on how tired I am today) we stayed busy while we were there. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family on Thanksgiving day. Mary got to ride up with my parents on Wednesday and Brian, Elijah, Emily and I drove up Thursday morning. We listened to The Magician's Nephew book on tape and Elijah LOVED it! He was making all kinds of connections since he is so familiar with The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. It made the 5 hours go by pretty quickly. The weekend was so fun because my kids had playmates wherever we were. Between both sides of my family my cousins are between the ages of 2-21. On Friday we got to spend the morning at my cousin's house. Their twin boys are 2 years old. They just bought a new house and it is super fun! They have a finished basement that is a huge playland. The adults might have had a little fun too, playing air hockey. From there we went back to my grandparents' house and got ready to make our traditional gingerbread houses. We put tablecloths over the ping pong table and decorate like crazy. That night we took the kids to the Fantasy of Lights parade through Howell. They absolutely loved it! The floats are all lit up with Christmas lights. Our evenings after the kids were put to bed included some intense games of Rummikub. Saturday my grandma made waffles, and we started packing up a bit and kind of relaxed before my grandpa's 80th birthday party at an old car museum. There was a Fabulous Hudson Hornet that Elijah was nuts for! They had a big display about the movie Cars next to it, and the man who worked there gave him a postcard with a picture of Doc Hudson on it (from the movie Cars). Elijah stayed with my mom and dad to drive home today, but the rest of us drove home late last night. We had a fantastic time seeing all of our family. I am so glad we got to go.