One of my friends in our local Mom's group posted this video, and because of some things that have been going on in our extended family it really made me think about the true meaning of Christmas.

This song has been getting a lot of play as part of the Sears advertising campaign.

You can go to http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/ and by watch videos people have made. Donations will be made to various charities for each viewing.  Or you can make your own.

http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/1240514

 The kids started pestering Daddy to get their tree from the attic as soon as he woke up this morning.  I had 2 hours of "when is Daddy getting up?"  "Can we go wake him now?"

I think they were happy to get to work, don't you?

The rest of our decorations will go up over the next few weeks.  So we have all this to look forward to again with the big tree.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving with just the four of us (well as quiet as can be with a 5 and 7 year old!)  We did most of our prep work on Wednesday so yesterday was spent watching movies and playing Scrabble Junior.

We ate at around 4pm and have our own twist on Thanksgiving dinner.  There was no pie for dessert we had Daddy's homemade cheesecake, the kids had jello and berries as well!

As soon as they were done with dinner the kids were pleading to get their small Christmas tree from the attic.  Meanies that we are, we made them wait til today for that!

Little Lady's class put on a wonderful program of songs today for Thanksgiving.  Their teacher Mrs P.  is a real gem, we are so thankful for the work she puts in for the children.

I took a few videos - the longest is 5 minutes and 600 megabytes so it's never going to upload!  But mostly it was for kiddo to see since he was in class and couldn't come to watch.

I ran out of room before their final song, so I did a bit of detective work and found it on you tube.  It's too good not to share!!

The kids' school had it's fall festival tonight.  It was a fun evening with dinner, lots of games, candy and oh yes, a clown!

I saw Chester making the rounds whilst we ate and I wondered how Little Lady would deal with him, she is not comfortable with strange men!  But he was good.  He sat down by  Kiddo and had won them both over in a matter of minutes.  It was great having the personal attention and not having to stand in line waiting for him to make balloon sculptures for them!

  Alice and I headed to the zoo yesterday for our November photography outing.  Chris is on vacation in Greece the lucky duck!

It was a beautiful fall day in the mid 60s, just perfect sweater weather.

I am still working through the 180 odd photos that I took, but here are some of my favorites so far!

Xerxes, the male lion cub.

Not sure what this bird is but it is native to Oklahoma.  Edit  it's a Sandhill Crane they are resident in south west Oklahoma in winter according to my bird book.

I always have a great time at the zoo taking photographs, it's especially nice to have some company that is understanding about me taking so many photos.  Thanks Alice!

   We haven't been to the zoo in well over a month and a half, which is pretty unheard of in our house.  I guess we have been busy!  This is my favorite time of year to go the zoo, I might sneak off again this week without the small people.

Plenty of fall color to be seen today.

 Everyone was enjoying the warm fall day, we had a high temp. of 82F, wonderful!

Aslan, the Daddy lion.

Spotted Hyena

African Hunting Dogs watching a zoo keeper come by.

Young gorilla having a stretch.

Toba, the orang playing peek a boo.

East African Crowned Crane.

 Little Lady borrowed a pair of tap shoes for her Flamenco Dancer costume for Halloween.  She has been having a rare old time with them.

Before anyone says it, we aren't putting her in dance classes,  our schedule is packed with gymnastics, cubscouts and school right now!  But I am thinking of buying her a pair to tippity tappity and have some fun at home with.

 It was such a mild evening last night that the kids didn't need any extra layers and the grown ups were out in tshirts.  We trick or treated in our street and a few houses in the next street, until little lady's feet started to hurt. The  tap shoes she borrowed were a tad too big for her!  Our kids have the most fun once we get home again, they love to hand out candy to the other kids.

It's almost dark, lets go!

Our jack o lanterns

Did someone say candy?

Sampling our candies whilst waiting on trick or treaters.

Striking a pose.

Handing out candy

Happy Halloween!