December is here!

We are so excited that it is Christmas time around our house. The tree is up and the stockings are hung (via staircase since we are mantel-less this year). We put the tree up two weekends ago and Andrew had a wonderful time unpacking all of the ornaments. We didn't decorate for Christmas last year because we moved out of our house on the 17th of December and then left for FL, so it has been 2 years since we have seen all of our decorations. I think Andrew said "this is my favorite ornament" at least 30 times. He did point out of silver cross ornament as the "most important" ornament on the tree. I asked him why and he said because it was the cross Jesus died on and that is the most important thing. Audrey enjoyed watching, but stayed back from the tree after being told "NO" a couple of times. She hasn't gone close to it again, so hopefully it will stay standing this year. I wanted her to get to hang some ornaments on it, but I figured that if I let her get close to it once, then she would attempt to rearrange the ornaments while I wasn't looking and I didn't want that to happen. We do have a couple of musical decorations that she is allowed to get up close to and she loves them.

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend in Pigeon Forge. We went to Dollywood on Friday and had a blast. The kids loved getting to ride all the little kiddie rides and riding the big train around the mountain, which I think was my favorite part. Audrey loved the carousel and yes!, Andrew is riding a pig behind her. Only at Dollywood!

Andrew says his favorite part of the trip was the show we went to at Dollywood, but I think he loved the hotel more. He just wanted to stay and play with his cars in the hotel all day long. Audrey's favorite part was probably a tie between the Christmas show at Dollywood and the hotel phone. We sat near an exit at the show, thinking that at some point during the 1 hour long show we would need to take Audrey outside. Boy were we wrong. Chip sat her up on his lap when it started and she didn't move for 1 hour (unless you count swaying back and forth to the music). She absolutely loved it and was mesmerized by the singing and dancing toys and people on the stage. As far as the hotel phone goes, she tried her best to talk on that thing every chance she could. Even when told "No" she still just would put one finger on it or close her eyes and pick it up. I think she thought, well I can't see them, so maybe they can't see me touching the phone. Chip finally unplugged it and let her play with it and she just kept answering it saying "hello!".

We also happened to run into Santa (the real one, just in case you are wondering) at Walmart of all places, on Saturday morning. Andrew really wanted to sit in his lap, so he went right up to him. I wasn't to sure about Audrey, but Chip just put her in his lap and she looked right at the camera and smiled. I couldn't believe it. You never know with her.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. We sure did. It was the first time the four of us have went off on a trip together. We had a great time and hopefully will go again in the spring sometime. Maybe we can get the grandparents to join us! That shouldn't be too hard to do.

Take Care.