Getting Ready for Christmas

We had to wait until Sunday to get our Christmas tree and put up the decorations because I had to work the couple days after Thanksgiving.  The kids launched rockets on Friday with Alex and Grandad.  Alex's sister and family came up Friday night to spend the weekend.

      

Getting ready to launch!

    

    

    

     

Picking out our tree!

   

      

   

It is a tradition for the kids to play with my childhood ornaments at the kitchen counter while I put the lights on the tree.  I had tried to put them on the rug for a more comfortable play space, but Harper informed me this wouldn't follow tradition.

    

    

    

Thanksgiving 2023

We went to the Charlotte Thanksgiving parade in Uptown Wednesday night.  It was chilly!  We only made it about an hour before we headed home, but it was fun to see the dancers, bands and floats.  We had Alex's dad for Thanksgiving this year.  It was lovely!

    

Thanksgiving Parade 

  

  

  

  

    

My first gingerbread cake didn't make it out of the bundt pan intact so I had to make a second cake.

    

This one turned out a lot better!

     

I loved our table set up!

  

  

      

I stayed up all night Wednesday making this food and the kids hardly ate anything!

        

   

     

    

    

    

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Dimes & Fish

We had a low key weekend and it was lovely.  The kindergartners had a Friendsgiving meal at school on Friday.  I had a half day so I was able to help out with Alex and the other room parents.  It was such a cute event!  I'm pretty sure most of the kids only ate their cupcakes, however.  Alex and I attended the March of Dimes event Saturday night and helped raise money for premature babies.  Alex and his dad took the kids fishing on Sunday to work on Scouts requirements. 

     

Friendsgiving

   

   

March of Dimes

    

    

    

Fishing

    

Birthdays in Blue Ridge

We met up in the Blue Ridge mountains with my family this weekend to celebrate Grandma and Mom's birthdays.  It was so nice to be together as a family.  Lisa was able to sneak down for a couple days too!  We had desserts on desserts, beautiful mountain views and great company.  

    

I loved my room!

   

We had a wonderful outdoor fireplace where we spent most of the weekend.

    

   

Harper and I made a cranberry orange pie for Grandma's birthday.

   

   

   

    

    

     

     

Alex brought mustaches for the kids.

   

     

    

    

   

Grandma and Harper made almond puff for Mom's birthday.

   

    

      

The hot tub felt great in the cool mountain air, even if it did take forever to heat up!

   

   

     

Icing tasters! 

    

     

   

    

   

     

We made hot chocolate.