November

As is the case with most months, November seemed to fly by! The girls have been busy making pillow forts, reading books together (one of their favorite activities) and dressing up like American Girl dolls (this is the one that Lucca wants-kind of weird how similar they look!).The Sunday before Thanksgiving we always go to the Christmas Preview in downtown Chico with Grammie and Papa. This year it was freezing outside! We didn't last outside too long, but we at least got to see Santa arrive at his post and see the beautifully decorated stores. Then we had an amazing dinner at Johnnies.
We had Lito and Lita over for dinner on Monday during our week off to celebrate Lito's birthday...We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house this year with Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Lissa, Nana Pam and Grandpa Mike. We began our morning for the second year in a row with the Run for Food in Bidwell Park. It is such a fun community event and this year there were approximately 4000 people running and walking for a wonderful cause. Grammie participated this year and ran/walked with Lucca and Siena. Lucca was totally into it this year and next year she wants to be chip timed! My little budding runner! :)

We spent a relaxing day at our house, watching football and snacking. Lucca and Grandma Lissa went on a leaf hunt and made a beautiful wreath! It looks professional!
The girls also opened up an early Christmas present from Grandpa Bruce and Grandma Lissa-the Elf on the Shelf! Lucca was thrilled to put him up on the shelf and read all about how he watches the girls each day then flies to the North Pole to report back to Santa each night between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Siena is completely into it now as well. Every morning, the first thing the girls do is run around the house looking to see where the elf has moved to (each morning he is in a new place). Siena points and says, "Elf!" with so much excitement! She has even found him before Lucca twice now!
After Thanksgiving dinner, Grammie, Papa, Lito, Lita, Stacy, Katherine, and Taylor came over for dessert. Lucca was thrilled to have a sleepover with Katherine that night. They had lots of fun staying up late and playing on Katherine's laptop with Photo Booth, while listening to Taylor Swift.
So unfortunately Siena is at a very difficult age for taking pictures. She HATES to pose! It is nearly impossible to get a good picture. I have no idea how I am going to be able to pull off a cute Christmas card picture this year! The girls looked super cute in their matching outfits, but alas this is the result of trying to capture them together...

The next day we went and got our Christmas tree and spent the rest of the weekend decorating the tree and the house for Christmas! I am so excited that we are now officially in the midst of the Christmas season! Here are the girls getting out all of the Christmas books. They were so excited to read all of them!
We also made yummy hot chocolate which Lucca has never liked (crazy girl) but this year she decided to give it another try and now she loves it! I think the chocolate dipped candy cane stirring stick helped!
The girls had a blast playing with all of the Christmas decorations as they came out of the box and running around in their Santa hats!
On Sunday, Heather and I drove to San Francisco to visit Suzanne and go out on the town to celebrate her birthday. We had an amazing time! It was fun to get away for a night and have "grown up time!"