Best. Day. Ever. Part 1.

 BEST DAY EVER.....FOR REALS.

Seriously, I don't know how many times those three little words in that phrase were said over the past week.  This may go down as one of my favorite holidays yet.  It seriously is the most wonderful time of the year...and yes I have been listening to Christmas music for two weeks already. Don't judge.

Lexi and Alex flew into town Wednesday morning to spend Thanksgiving with us and thus it began "this is the best day ever" week.

WEDNESDAY:  After arriving at our place in Denver, we unpacked and got settled for the week and then made our way down to the Castle Rock Outlet mall to do a little of Lexi's favorite activity......shopping. And yes, it was exclaimed in the car, to be the "best day ever" by a cute little blonde in the back seat, smiling and squeezing her hands together!!   We even got a bit of a bunny hop out of excitement once the car was parked by this same girl.

 We definitely got our credit cards warmed up for Black Friday as we hit up some of our favorite shops.  Then Alex and I pulled one over on the pro shopper...no big deal.  Alex diverted her attention to another store while I snuck back to Coach and purchased Lexi's birthday present that she had been drooling over previously in the day.  Yes, she already has opened it so there is no more surprise left, but Alex and I were pretty darn proud of ourselves for pulling it off right under her little nose.  "best day ever".  I love surprising people as much as I hate getting surprised.

Miss Lexi with her birthday bag!!

We shopped until mid-afternoon and returned home to relive our purchases and as you can see.....someone was a wee bit worn out!

We came back that evening and waited for Brett to get home from the hospital and grilled out and opened Christmas presents!!  Yes a bit early, but no less fun!!  We then spent the remainder of our evening playing what we fondly refer to as "the train game", European edition. As the gifts were opened, again I exclaimed that this was "the best day ever" because we kind of combined Thanksgiving and Christmas together during their visit so we didn't miss any memory making.

And then Lexi and I quickly became obsessed, and by obsessed, I mean ridiculously obsessed with shooting EVERY aspect of this week on the camera Brett and I purchased for Christmas.  Note to readers: there may be a ton of photos coming up since we didn't stop putting the camera down. Apologies.

THURSDAY:  While everyone was preparing the turkey and all the fixings, Brett was at work, and Lexi, Alex and I were snuggled up in our pj's, on the couch with cocoa and coffee.  A big brunch of homemade caramel rolls and egg bake was followed by the Macy's parade and the football games.  SOOOO RELAXING. "best day ever".

Perfection.

We finally mustered up some energy to walk down to the local grocer and get the newspapers so yes, we could start our scouting process.  We bought both the USA today and Denver Post to "prepare" for Lexi's favorite day of the week. Here are two happy (and slightly cold) gals ready to scout out the best deals in Denver!!!

And after all the excitement of planning our Black Friday excursion, Lexi needed a little nappy.

And after the nap, Lexi and I finished the afternoon off with our tradition of making Oreo Balls. YUM!  We know our family, aka Heidi Preisler, will miss them this Christmas at Grandma Barb's....but don't worry we enjoyed them plenty for you! ;)

Seriously the best holiday cookie ever.

After dinner, another round of "train game" was played with a glass of my favorite, Cupcake Moscato and onto Black Friday.

See Part 2 for the remainder of their 'best day ever visit"