After a fun filled Thanksgiving spent at my sister Kelly's house we were ready to start the CHRISTMAS season. First I guess I should tell you a little about Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful day with lots of good things to eat. You can see pictures and read more about it at www.raudenbushfamily.blogspot.com which is my sister's blog. Anyway, we went to her house since my family was scattered around the world this year and Brian's family lives so far from us :(. So for the first time ever my sister hosted and we were the oldest generation there. It was sad to not be with our families and not to see my parents or grandmother, or Brian's family, but it was also fun to do the cooking and have Kelly host too. So check out her blog for more about the day...now...Christmas...from almost as early as I can remember the Christmas holiday was started as I received my bag of 24 small gifts from my grandmother "Gran" . The gifts were then taken home and put into my bright red with green pockets (numbered 1-24) advent calendar, which was about 5ftx2.5ft. It even had my name printed in big letters over the top. Every morning I would open a gift until Christmas day, where my grandmother would SHOWER us with gifts...oh that magical day! Well now that our little Bohdan is 2 years old, the tradition starts a-new. So today Bohdan opened his FIRST advent gift from my mother, from his 5 ft. bright green with red pockets and his name printed on top. I will show you pictures tomorrow. Today's picture is just a sweet throw back.

Today's gift...a sweet little Chinese panda bear.