Reese Turns 13

It 's always a pretty quick transition from Thanksgiving to the next phase of holiday preparations. But there is much to do before we get to Christmas. We have to get the house ready, of course, but most important we have to celebrate the youngest member of our household.

A Christmas tradition that we have had for quite some time now is dipping chocolate. Kelly and Sarah typically take a day off from work only for them to put in eight plus hours of back breaking effort creating masterpieces of tasty chocolate morsels. This year Brian asked if he could join in the fun. He arrived early and even had his own heating pad for his back to ensure he could keep up. The day was long, but it was a success.

This year Reese turned 13 which meant it was a party year. After some discussion of what type of party to have, we decided to do a throwback theme to when she turned 7. This involved decorating gingerbread houses and other crafts. Fortunately, Reese and her friends are much taller now and we didn't have to find stools for all of them to reach their houses on the kitchen island.

They all showed up appropriately attired for a winter birthday celebration. And one of the things that is always fun is when a party brings together friends from all different parts of your life. Reese had a great time with all of them.

The girls may be older and taller than they were six years ago, but they are still as messy as ever. They also put as much candy in their mouths as they did on their houses, which is to be expected. Sarah did a great job packaging up each house so they could take them home and not leave us with all of that sweetness to tempt us.

In the end all of the girls seemed to have a great time. The weather was warm enough that they even played outside for a bit. Not pictured here are the various attempts of Reese and her friend Sophie to recreate the epic final scene from Dirty Dancing when Patrick Swayze lifts Baby into the air. Trust us, it was a special moment. And now Reese is officially a teenager. Time certainly flies.