The Mullins Family: November...it's over already?!

Wow! November flew by so fast! It's hard to believe I haven't blogged since Halloween, it seems like just yesterday! We had a fun, busy November. It started with Gabe and I running in the Almond Bowl Run. We both enjoyed it a lot! There were about 1000 runners participating so it was much larger than the first race we did back in October.

Another highlight of November was the downtown Christmas preview. We went with Grammie, Papa, Heather, Ricki, and Luciana. While the men stayed in Johnnie's and watched football at the bar, us girls roamed the festive, busy streets. Once it got too crowded, we had a wonderful family meal at Johnnie's. I always love the Christmas preview because I feel like it officially kicks off the Christmas season and gets me excited about the holidays.

Lucca and Grammie at the Christmas preview

Lucca ran into her friend Alex downtown

Heather and I with the girls at Johnnie's

Lucca and Auntie Heather at Johnnie's

Of course, the most exciting part of November was Thanksgiving. I was glad to have the week off from work to rest and rejuvenate ofter a grueling week of report cards and parent conferences. The girls both got a nasty cold the week before Thanksgiving and Lucca got pink eye, so we took them to the doctor and got them on antibiotics. We were able to get a lot of stuff done around the house, including organizing Lucca's art table and room, getting the carpets cleaned, and lots of yard work. We had two Thanksgiving celebrations this year. On Wednesday, we went up to Redding and had Thanksgiving dinner with Aunt Jan, Uncle Bob, Tristan, Kaysen, Grandma Julie, Lita, and Lito. Then on Thursday Gabe and I ran in the Run For Food, which was a 5K race benefiting the Jesus Center. It was an amazing turnout-over 3000 people participated! After the run, we had brunch at Lito and Lita's house, then went up to Forest Ranch for Thanksgiving dinner #2 with Nana Pam and Grandpa. Unfortunately, I started to feel sick while we were up there and spent most of the day resting. I came down with the same bug that the girls had, and it is just now starting to go away. Our whole family eventually caught it, as Gabe is starting to feel bad now.

Siena met her second cousins, Tristan and Kaysen, for the first time

Kaysen, Aunt Jan, Siena, and Grandma Julie

Fun in the Leaves!

On Friday, we decorated our house for Christmas. It was so fun to get out all of the boxes and turn our house into a holiday wonderland! We got our tree on Sunday and spent the day decorating it. Now we are all in the Christmas spirit and excited for the adventures that await us in December!