Thanksgiving, Christmas, and More. . .

Sorry for the lack of posts this past week - as was everyone else, we have been busy decorating, celebrating, and cheering (in a few short words)! We had a great Thanksgiving this past week. It was kind of quiet which is unusual for us at holiday time. Normally we have all of my family (and I mean ALL) at my house for Thanksgiving dinner, but with several circumstances out of our control, my parents went to my brother's house to celebrate with them this year, my grand parents and extended family stayed in Mobile and celebrated, and Sam's siblings all went to thier in-laws, so it was just Sam's parents and our family. It was cozy, relaxing, quiet, and perfect. Not to say that I didn't miss the chaos and hope we can resume it all next year!

Friday, after seeing the possible weather forecast, all of us decided that we did not want to go to the Auburn - I know, Crazy!!! So instead we opted to try and sell our tickets on eBay. And that we did - so not only were we able to watch the game on big screen in the comfort of dry warmth, in recliners, enjoying some munchies, and watching the Tide Roll, but we also were able to pad our pockets with a little cash! Sweet!!! Now, what am I going to spend my $200 on? Hummmm?

We also had the chance to put the finishing touches on our decorations at home (I will post a picture when I have more time). And our elf has been up to NOOO GOOOODD! Our elf, affectionately named Snowflake, has been visting us since last weekend. Sam says we may have been a little premature on his visits because we are already running out of ideas. My favorite Snowflake moment so far was last Wednesday:

I had been trying to get things prepped and prepared as much as possible so that all I had to do Thursday was put it all in the oven so I let the girls just have a hay-day in the playroom - so long as they didn't bug Mom! Ha, that was just a dream! Anyway, after I was finished I went to the playroom and it looked like Toys R Us had puked in the floor of our playroom! I was sooo tired and exhausted (and didn't feel great from the lovely productive cough I had) that we put the girls to bed and I didn't even think about the playroom OR Snowflake. I would just worry about all of it in the morning before the girls woke up. Well, morning came a little faster than I wanted and the next thing I know, both girls were in our bed wide-eyed and bushy tailed! It immediately hit me - oh no, I forgot Snowflake!!! I looked at Sam with those "oh, sh**" eyes and said I would be right back. He quickly mumbled "it's done." So off we all went to see what Snowflake had done ( I think I was more anxious than the girls). We finally found Snowflake - he had cleaned the playroom spotless, left a note to the girls (reminding them that Santa would be very upset if they let the playroom get messy again), and he had hopped on Lucy (one of the 100 horses we have) and was standing on top of the ceiling fan! It was perfect!! Man I love that Snowflake!!! I wish he would continue this kind of mischief all year!

Other than this great event, Snowflake has rolled our Christmas tree (before it was decorated, of course), taken ornaments off the kids tree in the playroom, taken the stockings down, made a bed out of a Dora lunchbox and slept with a stuffed giraffe, made snow angels on our kitchen table, and made a mess out of cereal in the pantry. Like I said, we are running out of ideas - please provide some new ones if you have any!!!

Sorry for the long post, but it's been a long week and lots of activities! By the way, Mary Mac trotted yesterday at her horseback riding lesson - actually she trotted 4 times and trotted a post (basically that means that they put a pole on the ground and the horse trotted over it). She was so proud and excited! She is riding a horse named James Brown - gott love the name! Her only problem is that her legs aren't quite long enough so when she kicks him to make him go, she's really just tapping his sides and not his underbelly! (not sure if that is the correct term, but I'm sure Sam will correct me) Oh well, she will grow!