It's a holiday-ish kind of day...

...really, it is. I found my mind focused on the upcoming holiday season today as I went about my day.

I was finally able to book the kids visit with Santa. You have to pre-register in the summer and then in the fall they start sending out special links so that you can sign up for your time slot. Well, it's done randomly and this year I was at the bottom of the list to get my link. My friend, Evan, got her link a week and a half ago! Anyways, most of the times were booked up but I made do and was able to get it set up. I'll take AG out of school for the day and we'll take a day trip down to ATL. We'll go see Santa at Phipps Plaza and then hop next door to Lenox for lunch. After that if we are still good on time we'll take a quick spin on the Pink Pig at Macy's. An Atlanta tradition since the end of WWII and one that I can remember doing each year growing up. 

This evening we took family pictures at Berry to use for our Christmas card and to update the family photos in the house. I have a huge frame that sits on the mantle in the living room that I would like to update with either a shot of all four of us or a picture of the kids. Our photographer is amazing...phenomenal, really. She got some great shots tonight and I can't wait to see the end result. The kids were troopers and we were able to take pictures in two locations. The first was Old Opportunity Drive aka the original entrance to the school. It's one of my favorite spots on Main Campus and has been since high school. The second spot was out on Mountain Campus and we ended up at the WinShape Retreat Center. (Which is where we were married 6.5 years ago!) There was a herd of cows in the pasture next to Old Opportunity and Avi-Kate kept pointing the ENTIRE. TIME. at the cows. (And mooing, of course.) I'm hopeful we were able to get at least one picture of her looking at the camera and not the cows. Which by the way AG properly identified as angus cows due to their black coats. Can you tell we have cattle farmers for relatives? :)

October is zipping by and the holidays will be upon us soon! Have you started thinking about the next few months as we round out 2012?