Thanksgiving Fun

Stuffed, is what we are! Let's just say the END of Thanksgiving was spent at Lexington Barbeque.
We went to Martha and Harrison's around 11:00 am on Thursday. We enjoyed Bloody Mary's and snacks. Then we had the most wonderful Tuscan Soup. Oh, and the girls indulged in their favorite, Martha's Carrot Cake


See, that's Mary Stuart, eyeing the Carrot Cake, for the umpteeenth time.

Then, we went on to Granny Charlotte's house. This is Tom's Great-Aunt, who is very close to the family. We spent the night there and had lots of fun. Mary Stuart helped set the table, take dessert orders, and played a lot. Molly entertained everyone. With her lack of nap, she was full of energy due to the loads of sugar she had consumed.
We had a wonderful day. This is one of our favorite pasttimes.
Oh, and now we are upon Christmas. Merry, Merry!
To quote MS's very special blessing, that you may use one day,
"Thank you God, for the food you provide,
for friends and family, and you by my side,
Amen."
Hope you all enjoyed your special day!!

NC State Letdown

The letdown of the season!!!!! Mary Stuart had been planning a special visit to Raleigh with Mommy to visit our best friends, Jaime and Peyton. We arrived last night with a cold, which quickly progressed to a fever, which landed us at the local Urgent Care at 8am. She's fine, but has croup (which has been a constant each year). This included a loss of appetite, fever, and lethargy. Last year, same time, same place, Mary Stuart brought with her the stomach flu.
So, at 9am we hit the road to go back home to Charlotte. No cheerleader uniform, no pre-game festivities, no tailgate food, no getting to know "Mr and Ms Wolf". Oh, well. There will be next year. Let's just hope we won't harbor more illness the next time we visit.

Halloween

The holidays, as I can see it, are about to be really fun. For the first time, I was so excited for both of the kids...they "got" Halloween this year. Feeling that emotion, you just can't help getting giddy inside, remembering how fun your past holidays were. I can only imagine how fun Thanksgiving and Christmas will be. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I was riding in the car taking us all to school last week. Mary Stuart and I were having a conversation about the holidays. I asked her what we did at Thanksgiving, wondering if she had any clue, and she said, "We eat carrot cake at Martha's". For those of you who don't know, our dear family friends, Martha and Harrison, live in Greensboro and they are first in our Thanksgiving eat-a-thon. The culmination of that soup lunch is Martha's wonderful carrot cake, which has made it's debut on one of the morning shows and in a cookbook. How in the world Mary Stuart remembers things, I don't know, but that would be a memory to keep!

Back to Halloween, we started the week with a Halloween playdate at Shayle's. Shayle is hiding her child development degree from me! I got there, and she had huge pumpkin, ghost, and bat (?) cutouts from butcher paper for the kids to color, pumkin paper plates with stickers for each child, homemade sugar cookies....on and on. The kids had a lot of fun.

Halloween night, we went back to Jennifer and Derek's for a second year in a row. Two other couple's, Jenn and Mike, and Karmin and Travis, were also there for the festivities. The girls had such a wonderful time. We stayed up late and had lots of fun. And we all are still eating the tons of candy. Molly says, "I like chocolate" every time I bring the treat bags down. That's new! Oh, and she uses the spanish version of chocolate, like Dora: "choc-o-latte"

FINALLY, Sunday night, Jennifer and Derek rented a bouncy house, just for fun, and we were back over there for football and fun. Shew!

Needless to say, we are blessed with friends! We have had lots of fun so far this fall. Oh, and we have new neighbors with two boys almost identical in age. They live directly across the street, and the kids are having so much fun with them. Life goes on! We will have lots of holiday pics to post, I'm sure. We hope you all have lots to be thankful for....