The holiday season has begun. . .

We kicked off the holiday season with my birthday the day before Thanksgiving. It was a nice birthday spent with my family at Plimoth Plantation and the Mayflower 2 at Plymouth, MA. Unfortunately my uncle in Northern Ireland died right before Thanksgiving and my Mom had to rush off to be with my aunt. My parents' house wasn't the same without my Mom there.

Here are Jeff, J and B on board the Mayflower. 102 passengers slept below deck-it must have been very stinky!

We also checked out Plymouth rock. Not too exciting. It is, after all, a rock.On to Plimoth Plantation. . . Here the museum staff pretends to be living at the time of the Pilgrims. It's always very interesting and amusing.

The day after Thanksgiving we made a quick stop at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. And when I say quick, I mean quick. I think we spent longer at the cafeteria than we did at the exhibits! Our goal was to check out the mummies and the Impressionists before the kids dragged us out of the museum and we did accomplish that. I was there with my sister and her two small children (ages 3 and 5). My 3 year old niece was not impressed with the mummies-she was afraid they would give her nightmares.

Here is a dog and a cat mummy.

Renoir.

So, now Thanksgiving is past and we're on to Christmas. I threw together this Advent calendar last night while the kids watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It was inspired by this blog.

And here's the back of it. Made with toilet paper tubes and an Amazon box.

We've also been celebrating advent with our homemade advent wreath.

It's been a very nice start to the holiday season. Hope you're enjoying the holidays too!