A Car, A Helicopter and Some Jets

Living in a country full of people who don't actually know when their birthday is, let alone celebrate said birthday has resulted in a deep desire to go all out for our celebrations. Both Joey and I grew up with Moms who did a great job of making the whole day special so it was easy to extend the excitement to the next generation. One tradition I started this year was to give a new shirt to wear on the birthday. It is opened with breakfast and thankfully my boys LOVED getting a new shirt. I was able to make them all this year and had a blast creating something I knew they would like. We also try and make elaborate cakes. Josiah requested a "Ferry Boat", Benson wanted an airplane and William was up for whatever so he got a fish. I love getting to help them have fun birthdays.

In other news. Isabelle is now 3 months old and getting cuter everyday. She is starting to be a lot more fun too. The boys love to give her kisses and get excited when she makes any noise. They are quick to translate whatever noise she made into a commentary on our present activity. They kill me.

We had a great time at Thanksgiving, celebrating with our Moroccan family. They are good sports eating our traditional meal. They even seem to like some of the dishes we present. It was hard to be away from family, but if I'm going to be away, this is where I want to be.

As soon as Thanksgiving was over we busted out the fake Christmas tree and got to decorating. The boys had a great time making it look festive. There were a few moments of distress because the tree wasn't nearly as big or nice as Grammy and Gramps' but we were able to enjoy the blessing of having a tree at all. Something about it glittering in the corner makes my heart happy and full of peace. I love Christmas.

William has taken to reading any cooking magazine he can get his hands on. Seriously, he goes to the bookshelf and chooses the "Cooks" magazine almost every time. He'll look at it for a while too. 
Maybe he'll grow up to be our charming chef? 

Last but not least, I made this yesterday. I found it on pintrest. I love it. Its just a little orange cut in half and peeled so that it makes a bowl. You cut a star out of the top and fill the bottom with a bit of olive oil. The stem of the orange acts as a wick. And away you go, little orange candles for your Christmas celebration. So fun. And who says there is nothing good on pintrest?