Getting Ready!

We went Friday morning to pick out our tree, and we bypassed Lowe's where we normally buy it because they were almost completely out of the 7-8 foot trees. We went to a local place that had NC-grown trees, and they were beautiful!  They were not, however, labeled with height--so we found the one we wanted and didn't actually realize how big it was.  When we got it home, we knew it was bigger than we'd ever had because Mick could barely carry it by himself, and then he had to bring in his saw to cut the bottom off so we could stand it up in the house!  We have 9 ft. ceilings in our living room, and it's only about 6 inches from touching the top.

When we finally got it in the stand, Em decided she needed to write her name on it.  She's crazy about writing right now, and she's getting really good at her name.

I added the date so we would remember when she created her masterpiece :).

It took me so long to get all the lights on (there have to be at least 1300), and I blew multiple fuses in the process.  We ended up with three extension cords up the trunk of the tree so we could keep them all lit, so we didn't get to finish decorating it until Saturday morning, but that was Em's favorite part.  We did have to break out the step ladder for her so all the ornaments weren't in the same area at the bottom of the tree!

I've wanted to do more outside for a couple of years now, but we still didn't get any reindeer, so we just put up lights.

And here's how the tree turned out!

Thanksgiving Day

It's rare that we'd be at home by ourselves for Thanksgiving, but we took advantage of it and decided to take the light rail train into uptown Charlotte for the Thanksgiving day parade.  There's a train station about 10 minutes from us, and the light rail is pretty new to Charlotte.  It's certainly not a city known for it's great public transportation, and this goes into the city and back--nothing fancy--but new for Em.

It happened to be freezing cold that day, too, so it really felt like holiday time!

I thought this was a sweet picture of Em snuggled up to Daddy on the train.

We live southeast of the city, so we really don't get there much unless we're going to a show or something--Em still really likes to see all of the tall buildings.

The parade started at 9:30, and we were there and ready!

I'm having some issues with my camera, so I went back and forth taking pictures on my camera and my phone.

Happy litle elf :).

The parade itself could use some tightening up--there were a lot of high school marching bands and a lot of people in convertibles, which were okay, but moved along pretty slowly and were not as exciting as some of the balloons and floats.

There were a lot of horses and dogs, which Em LOVED.  This was the Wells Fargo stage coach.

Needless to say, the gingerbread man was a huge hit--this was Publix, which is slowly infiltrating Charlotte (SO EXCITED!)

The Charlotte Panthers were a big hit too--their band was the best, and most interactive.  Sir Purr was on a four wheeler, which Em loved.

And one of the cheerleaders stopped and gave Em these blue beads...they have a new fan!

Even the drummers stopped and let the kids play--they were great.

It was really cold, and we were in the shade of the buildings, so we took a hot chocolate break.

Aside from the fact that Em still likes to be held sometimes, she's super warm, so Mick and I took turns holding her when it got really cold.

Toward the end, we got a little smarter and moved into the sun, which warmed us up a little.

The Charlotte Knights (minor league baseball team) is moving their stadium to uptown Charlotte in the spring, so there's a lot of excitement around that.  Right now, the stadium is right across the SC line, which is really close to us.  This snowglobe was a box with "Do Not Open Until April 2014."

The military tribute was nice.

I love that Em gets so excited over an American flag--there aren't many sights more beautiful!

Another balloon--we left a little before it ended because we were freezing and had been outside for almost 3 hours!  It was a lot of fun though.

That evening, we had dinner with the Allards, who I've mentioned before.  Em and Emma play so well together, and we really enjoy being with Heather and Jeff.  Heather fixed a great kids table with these headbands for them to make and a table cloth to color!

It was a lot of fun for the girls.

Em loves having another kid to play with,

and it's always nice to check out someone else's toys!

We got home late, and it had been a wonderful day with a lot to be thankful for, most definitely!

Early Thanksgiving

My family made the decision to celebrate Thanksgiving a week early this year--Aunt Julie got a great deal on a flight from Boston, and since Thanksgiving was so late, it seemed appropriate to go ahead and kick off the holidays :).

 

Julie got in town at the beginning of the week, and Grandma came in Wednesday morning--we kept Em home from school on Friday, and Aunt Jenn got here Friday night with Cody and Chase.  We were all excited to see each other, but I think these three were most thrilled!

We had a spaghetti dinner Friday night and let the three of them sit at a kids' table.  That night, Cody and Em were determined to have a campout together--we put the air mattress in the floor and their sleeping bags on top.  Chase wanted to visit a little before bedtime :).

 They lost their nerve a little when it was time to turn out the lights, but ended up sticking with it.

I can't remember if these pictures were Friday night before bed or Saturday morning when they woke up, but they could be either.  They had so much fun and played so well together--makes me wish we all made time to get together a lot more often.

 We let the kids watch a movie on Saturday morning while we all took showers.

Cody and Em eating apples with Grandma while the movie played.

Love these pics as the three of them snuggled up and read stories.

 They totally look like they could be siblings!

 Papa got here Saturday morning, and Uncle Jason a little later Saturday afternoon.

We really wanted to get some pictures of the three kids together in these matching turkey shirts, and they all turned out cute, but it's tough to get three kids to look at you at the same time!

 They were more concerned with playing when the photo shoot was over!

 These two are so silly together!

 Kids' table again for Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night.

These are their turkey impressions--hilarious!

We built a fire outside that night, but it was a little too windy to stay out for long.

They roasted a couple of marshmallows and were done.

Julie's flight back to Boston was Sunday morning, so we tried to get some pictures of everyone at the last minute!

We're so terrible at remembering to take pictures while everyone is together--we normally think of it as we're walking out the door.

Sunday afternoon, Em and I made Thanksgiving crafts and listened to Christmas music!  It's breaking my "no Christmas before Thanksgiving" rule a little, but since we did Thanksgiving early, I thought we could get away with it :).