Little Christmas Helpers

Even before we got home from Thanksgiving, we were ready to start celebrating the holiday season.  We blared the Christmas music as we drove home and on our way, we even stopped to get our tree.  I always want to get our tree as soon as we can after December rolls around because we always go out of town, and I want us to be able to enjoy it for as long as we can.  So, we stopped, with all of our suitcases still in the car, and picked out the perfect tree.  I still think the boys favorite part is picking up treasures that they find on the ground at the lot like little twigs and string, but we did come home with the perfect tree strapped to our car.

The boys wanted to decorate the tree immediately, but as a result of crazy work and school schedules we had to wait a few days.  That night, we got the boys into their Christmas PJ's, set all of the ornaments out on the table and got to decorating.  This was the first year that both boys really enjoyed putting lots of ornaments on the tree.  They especially liked the ones that had their names on it and their own bird and bear ornaments that they get every year.

As a result of the fabulous ornament helpers, we ended up with all of the ornaments clustered in one spot at about boy eye level on one side of the tree.  We also have ornaments that tend to jump off the tree at any moment.  That's okay, I know they had fun, and we only lost one ornament in that whole process so I consider it a victory.

After the tree was all happily lit, I sat down and read my book in the light of the twinkling tree.  What a great way to start the holiday season!

(Ian puts the lights on the tree-my least favorite part.)

(Evan and Ben show off their bear and bird ornaments.)

(my big helpers)

(Look how I've grown, Mom!)

(Evan carefully selects an ornament.)

(Ben admires his birth year ornament.)

(the cluster of ornaments on a happy tree)

Turkey, Turkey!

This year, we didn't have far to travel for Thanksgiving.  So, when Evan and Ben got out of school on the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, we just hopped in the van and headed down the road to Charlotte to spend Thanksgiving with the Davis clan.

Gram and Gramps were hosting at the Davis house, so there was lots to get done before the big day.  Since it's the busy time of year at Portrait Innovations, Gramps and Uncle Reid also had to work most of the holiday.  That's ok, we still had lots of good family fun!  On Tuesday and Wednesday, we tried our hardest to wear out some puppy dogs and keep the house from being a total disaster.  We also helped to track down the elusive oysters for Jennifer's famous scalloped oyster dish.  You'd never believe how tricky it is to get oysters at that time of year, but we finally managed to find some.

On Thanksgiving morning we were lucky enough to be able to go to Portrait Innovations while it was closed to get our Christmas card pictures taken by Uncle Reid.  They've updated that particular studio and it looked really nice.  It was so much more peaceful to get pictures made when there was no one else in the studio.  Reid is also a great photographer, so we had the pictures done in a snap.  The boys might have gotten a bit goofy at the end, but they were entitled to be a bit silly after sitting for such good pictures.

(Our family picture for our Christmas card-aren't we beautiful?)

(getting silly at the end of the picture)

After pictures, we hurried home with a few additional groceries to prepare for the big meal.  I'm always amazed at how Gram manages to get everything out and ready to serve at exactly the right time while entertaining company.  This time, we even managed to get a fabulous family picture of everyone who was there just about as things were coming out of the oven.  Now that's multitasking.

We had a great time chatting and having fun with the Davises.  The boys had a great time getting to know and playing with their cousin MacKenzie.  Ben, of course, was just quivering with excitement waiting for Uncle Don to arrive.  For some reason, Uncle Don is about Ben's favorite person in the whole world, and he kept heading to the door all day long to see if he was there yet.  Benny dragged Uncle Don upstairs to play with toys at several points in the evening.  The meal was delicious, from the Grandma Zales cheesy corn casserole (not the Bitler version, but still delicious), to the mexican chocolate trifle for dessert.  It's always hard to get the boys to eat new foods, but I feel like they're gradually eating a little more every year at the Thanksgiving table.

(three turkeys)

(two boys cooking Thanksgiving dinner)

(all about the baste)

(playing with Uncle Don in the rec room)

(the Thanksgiving feast)

(the kids' table-minus Walker and Wesleigh)

(the other Thanksgiving table)

(the family poses during a break in the dinner preparation-aren't we a good looking group?)

After dinner was over, Gram could finally relax.  We had a great time just playing around the rest of the week.  Gramps even got a little bit of time off to see the boys.  On Friday, Gram took us to see The Penguins of Madacascar at the movie theater. Now, I wasn't too enthused about it, but it actually turned out to be a really cute movie, and just up the boys' alley.

Saturday, Uncle Reid and Aunt Candice came over and brought their dogs to hang out all day.  I was worried that Uncle Reid and Aunt Candice's dog Pepperdew would get into a fight with Ripple because Rip doesn't really get along that well with any dogs.  Luckily, Pepperdew was happy to submit to Rip's little dominant attitude and they had great fun racing and chasing in the backyard while Gram looked on worriedly from the window.  We actually managed to sneak in 2 games of Ticket to Ride that day.  Unfortunately, I didn't win either one, but as always, I had fun playing.  Ben is starting to enjoy coming to watch the game.  He wanted to join in and played on my team for a while, but it's a bit complicated for him just yet.

(Evan built a masterpiece)

(the train game)

(all this activity wore out a poodle)

(Evan's creation to monitor all the dog activity)

On Sunday, we finally had to head home.  It was a fabulous, relaxing weekend, and it was just what we needed to get ready for the holiday season.  Thanks to Gram and Gramps for being such wonderful hosts!

That day, we headed home and picked up the Christmas tree before we even took the suitcases out of the car to unpack, but more on that later...

We Have Good Friends

So, this fall, as usual, we've been having some great times with our crazy friends.  It's so nice to have people that you get along so well with and can just get together and have fun at any time.

Every week, we all get together with out great neighbors the O'Malley and Andersen families.  The kiddos play and the moms get to talk and maybe even have a few sips of wine.  Evan and Ben love learning all sorts of new things from their friends Izzy and Carolyn who are a few years older than them, and their starting to learn how to entertain our little neighbor, baby Cooper.  Whether we're enjoying s'mores outside in the cul-de-sac, or just going a little crazy indoors, we're always having fun.

(looking fashionable with Izzy and Carolyn)

(Jill and I illustrating the fact that, yes, I am short.  But if you look, I'm the same height as her in the torso, I just have no legs.)

We also love to get together with our friends the South family.  We've been friends since Evan and Nathan met in the 2's class in preschool.  A few weeks ago, we all got together again for sleepover #3.  Staying all night gives the kiddos a chance to play all night and the grown ups a chance to actually hang out and play games while the kids are sleeping, or at least pretending to sleep.  This time, we all enjoyed a delicious pre-Thanksgiving dinner.  We even pulled out the fancy china.  After dinner, the adults all played games while the kids tried not to go back to sleep as long as they could. What a great time with a great family!

(The big pre-Thanksgiving feast with the South family)

(Evan and Nathan post-slumber party)

(Ben and Anna also survived the night.)

Thanks to all of our awesome friends for keeping us all sane and making life a lot more fun!

A Couple of Walks in the Woods

Our family always likes a good adventure in the great outdoors.  This fall we've managed to get outside a few times in between the rainy cold weather and have a little fun.

Our first trek was at one of our favorite stops, Occoneechee Mountain.  It's the highest point in Orange County and the highest point from, I think Greensboro to the Atlantic Ocean.  It's not actually that high, which makes it the perfect climb for the boys.  We take the dog because he loves a good walk in the woods, we hike around by the river and through the hills, and of course, the boys favorite part, we get to climb rocks.  Occoneechee Mountain has a bunch of great boulders and the boys have a ball climbing all over them.  This time, we actually found the scenic overlook which gave us a great view of Hillsborough below.

After our hike, I mentioned our fun afternoon on my local blog, and someone mentioned that the Hillsborough Riverwalk was also nearby.  We hadn't checked it out, so the next weekend we headed back out to the same area.  The Riverwalk is a great trail that was just finished up a couple of months ago.  We took the section that led from a playground to downtown Hillsborough.  The trail had lots of bridges where the boys could play "pooh sticks" where you throw two sticks off of one side of the bridge.  Then, you run over to the other side and watch to see which stick comes out first.

Once we were in downtown, we wandered around until we found a great little pizza place to have lunch.  It was a bit chilly, but since Sir Ripple had come with us, we sat outside.  The food was delicious, and there was even a chocolate shop across the street where we could get a little sweet treat to finish off our meal.

We can't wait till the weather warms up a bit and we can get right back out there for some more fun in the great outdoors!

(starting off on our hike)

(nature exploring)

(watching his boys rock climb-such a dedicated poodle)

(a very cute bear attack)

(Taking a picture of someone taking a picture-a Davis family tradition)

(the little sneak I was capturing in my picture)

(getting ready to climb)

(a scenic view and a little snack-no Ripple, no cheese crackers for you!)

(the Eno River-looking good)

(a little game of pooh sticks over the Eno)

Boosterthon

So, this is Evan's first year at the big elementary school, and with a big elementary school come the big elementary school fundraisers.  I definitely remember watching the fundraiser pep rallies at school and really wanting to sell the most of whatever wrapping paper or popcorn we were supposed to be selling because then we'd win the biggest prize that they were promoting.  I never won, but I always sort of enjoyed the process.

I don't know if Evan inherited my love of fundraising, but he too was all about the prizes that he could win by raising money through the Boosterthon program.  For this particular fundraiser they would raise money for a week, gaining prizes as the week progressed, and then they would run to earn all the "pledges" that they had collected.  All of the Boosterthon fundraisers were very enthusiastic and Evan managed to earn a ball, an invisible ink pen, a rocket, and a water bottle.  Thanks so much to everyone who donated to raise money for Evan's school.

On the final day of the Boosterthon, I headed in to school to watch Evan run in the Boosterthon fun run.  All of the students tried to run 35 little laps around the gym.  I could tell going in to it that Evan was a bit nervous about whether or not he would be able to run that much.  But once they got started, he was having so much fun, and he was so proud that he finished all of his laps.

Take a look at our happy little fundraiser!

(Evan's class waits to start their big run.)

(Evan flies around the track...most of the other pictures were blurry because he was running so fast!)

(They marked off a lap on his back every time he went around...there's all 35.)

 

(tired but proud)