November 25

It was a long, long day. I dragged Abby out of bed at midnight to watch the first installment of Gilmore Girls. We both went off to bed at 1:30, but I couldn't settle down and I'm not sure I slept at all. I stopped trying to sleep at 8, and waited til 9 before I went upstairs and again pulled Abby out of bed so we could do our annual Black Friday shopping. (Poor kid of mine.) We made the rounds and had lunch with her good friend and her mom (as we've done every Black Friday for the last three years). Then we headed home for a little while before hitting the tree lot with the whole fam to choose our Christmas tree.

When Abby and Logan and even Isaac were really little people, I used to take gobs of photos. Every time a special occasion presented itself, I took my camera along and snapped as many pics as I could. I'm sure my shutterbug tendencies annoyed other people at times, but I'm so beyond thankful that we have that treasure trove of images now, since Logan can no longer be with us on special days.

I don't take as many pictures now for a variety of reasons, but I'm thankful for the ones I do get, even if they're imperfect like this one because this is us. And though Logan's absence means the photos are never truly complete, they're still very, very good.