Happy Thanksgiving!

Only a week and a half late…

For Thanksgiving this year, we flew to NC to see Meamaw and Grandpa (and Uncle Billy).

The day before we left, we got our first snow of the season, and MiniM.E. had a blast testing out the sled we bought when we lived in Germany.

Then early Wednesday morning we flew to NC.  MiniM.E. did really well on the plane despite the turbulence (she definitely turned a little green!).

When we arrived at Meamaw and Grandpa's house, MiniM.E. was excited to see that Santa came early so she would have presents to play with.

We had a relaxing time while we were there.  We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner (that MiniM.E. slept through…). Unfortunately, I got a stomach bug (probably from the airport) on Friday, so I have no clue what happened that whole day- MiniM.E. was such a trooper though!

playing in Daddy's old blocks

on the pier

playground!

teaching Dolly to play piano

getting some exercise

with Dolly

Fortunately, by Saturday I was feeling much better and we went to Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach to meet up with our friends from college who also have a toddler almost MiniM.E.'s age.  MiniM.E. had a blast.  She didn't really remember E. very well, and trying to herd two two-year-olds through an aquarium and try to keep them interested in the same thing was impossible, so I never got a photo of them together :(.

Saturday evening we had mini-Christmas…

And then Sunday it was time to come home.

Until next time, North Carolina!

A Pre-Thanksgiving...

filled weekend.

Since we are going to NC for Thanksgiving this year, and since this is a year where the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is the shortest, we wanted to be prepared to start the Christmas festivities as soon as we get home from NC.  So we decided to cut our tree this weekend!

The past two years we got our tree from Ellms Family Farm (the same awesome fall-activity-farm), but their trees are expensive, and we knew MiniM.E. would have a fit if she saw the farm and realized all the fun fall things were closed.  Instead, we tried Bob's Trees.  They actually have a much larger selection, and despite the cold, we found our tree and had a good time.  (They even have reindeer!!)

Then today we went to a playgroup family "Early Thanksgiving".

Happy Thanksgiving!

I might be a Christmas-aholic.  Every year on the day I put away the Christmas decorations and turn off the Christmas music, I start counting down until Christmas again.  This year is especially exciting because the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is so long!

I was so excited this morning that I jumped out of bed, turned on the Christmas music, and put up all our decorations after I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30, made some coffee, and finally felt human again, I was actually pretty excited to go Black Friday shopping even though that nasty cold snuck back up on me and I'm not feeling tip-top.  Fortunately, the Christmas season is pushing any phlemy-sniffly-icky feelings out and replacing them with sniffly-warm-happy-winter feelings (sort of).

This year, my Christmas shopping is almost done (online... which I never imagined would be as fun as going to actual stores... until I had a one-year-old an the thought of Christmas shopping with her in tow made me shudder), so I will fill my Christmas season baking, card-sending, and wrapping.  Amongst other things like visiting NYC, picking out a tree, and attending holiday festivities.

My type-A personality loves making lists around the holiday season, and as a heads up to my loyal readers, blog posting will probably make the list, though might be considerably lower than, say, watching Elf or eating cookie dough.  SO.... hang in there, posts might be few and far between, but you're probably busy with your own lists anyway...

We've already been busy the past week or so...

We went to NH because after all the busy-ness before the holidays, I needed a little break.

Then, this week, Bob has been home hanging with us and having Mommy-fantasy-camp.  (Which is actually nothing like my normal days, especially since MiniM.E. has been napping like a champ- she might be a little under the weather too- and we've just been doing fun things and skipping the not so fun things like laundry and grocery shopping.)

There's the occasional melt-down that comes from changing up our schedule

Really, we've been having fun and keeping busy...

petting the kitties

watching the squirrels

looking out the window

playing with toys

going for wagon rides

climbing at the park

sliding at the park

just being cute (actually, refusing a jacket)

stroller walks at the Spa Park

carrying monkeys around

and playing precariously on benches

And yesterday we went to our friends' house for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was nice that even if we weren't celebrating with our actual family, we had our "second family" to spend the holiday with.

bringing our mess of toys to another house

examining the wine cork after smelling it

watching football

...after dinner, MiniM.E. was pretty much done...

and almost fell asleep on the floor

This weekend we're kicking off Christmas with our 2nd annual trip to NYC.  And I thought going to New York with a two-month old was challenging... this is a whole new ball game!

I'm just hoping she doesn't cry so much this year that Santa refuses to hold her...