Thanksgiving with the Steffens

We have had so much to be thankful for this year including the beautiful Thanksgiving that we just had as a family :) Since we celebrated the traditional style earlier this month while my wonderful parents were in town, we spent the holiday as just our little family of three...

At first I was a bit sad to think about not getting to spend Thanksgiving or Christmas day with our families this year, but it dawned on me that Nick and Nora are my family now, and this is our home now :) We can still make our own memories together and start our own new traditions...and we did just that! I was so excited that Nick took the entire week off this year (which those of you that know him, know that is huge!) so we decided to plan a mini family vacation. After narrowing our choices down to the Grand Canyon in Arizona or Durango, Colorado, we opted for the one closer to home this time. (only a 4 hour car ride).

I am sure glad we chose Durango, because as I am sure you can tell by our pictures, we had a blast! We had such a wonderful time exploring the quaint little mountain town and its surrounding areas. The scenery was absolutely magnificent and  I was particularly excited to get to see some snow and let Nora play in it for her very first time! (I think she is going to be a snowbird like her mama). And of course with any vacation, it is always fun to try new restaurants and do some shopping. I was able to start my Christmas shopping and even managed to pick up a few special items for Nick and I, including our Christmas outfits.

We had decided to make sure we scheduled our trip so that we would be home in time to spend Thanksgiving as a family (including our doggies). Since we had already started a couple traditions the last couple years, we were looking forward to carrying out our Thursday. Those traditions included, a morning workout (so we can have guilt free eating all day, lol), a menu of my famous Lasagna and banana creme pie and bringing out all the Christmas decorations while listening to some holiday music and drinking some warm apple cider! And this year, we did the entire thing while staying in our jammies (comfy clothes) all day and not taking a single picture, haha! The day actually turned out wonderful and even better then expected.

 Well since we didn't take any pics of the actual Thanksgiving day, I am going to include a couple of Nora's Fall Pics and some of our favorites from Durango. I hope you too had a wonderful holiday!