Thanksgiving weekend

We spent the long Thanksgiving weekend with my parents at the lake. Along with my mom's side of the family, we ate a ton of food, put together a puzzle, vegged out in front of the tv, and talked our ears off. 

My grandma holding her newest great grand daughter. She so very much loves holding babies and we have to document it when we have the chance!

Look at this pretty lady! This is my cousin's daughter, Lila. The girls and I had a lot of fun holding her (and staring at her in between playing).

Josie spent a solid 45 minutes (or more?) brushing Trista's hair. While Trista almost fell asleep, Josie just continued on "making her pretty."

The next day, we decorated their home for Christmas. The girls were pretty gentle with the ornaments and breakable decorations. Some of them are the same decorations we would pull out years ago. It's a lot more meaningful to look at them through the girls' eyes now. Since we'd already decorated our tree at home, the girls were old pro's and put the ornaments on like they've done it for years. It was a little bottom heavy, but I played the old "look what I found! Should we put it up here?" game and they always agreed.

We also had Christmas music playing and served the girls hot chocolate while we sipped on coffee. Seriously, can it be more perfect?

I vividly remember playing with these well into my teens every year after discovering them mixed in with the ornaments. Something about their daintiness makes them irresistible. Audrey seemed to agree.

In the evening, we headed into town for a Christmas lights parade filled with horse drawn carriages of all sizes. It was so absolutely delightful. Cold, but delightful! We so hope that we can make this a yearly tradition, at least on the years that we go to the lake for Thanksgiving. :)

Audrey photobomb.

Check out the lady behind us accidentally photobombing. Ha!! She took the above family picture for us and was a great "neighbor" while we watched the parade.

And bringing up the rear, crazy Santa and his mini "reindeer" who ran so fast and all over the place that we swore they were both drunk. 

The last day we were there was also the warmest. After all of the food we had eaten, we were all itching to get outside and move around. It was so beautiful with the fresh white snow and calm, still air. This year was different with Josie being old enough to really play actively in the snow. She was digging paths, making snow angels, running around, and playing games like crazy all by herself. I can only imagine how much fun she'll have when Audrey can participate. Audrey always starts out going strong, but usually gets frustrated after falling over 149382 times and not being able to use her thumbs (we're working on that). She walked around for a while, sat on the tree bench, and then headed into "help" Grammy make lunch. It worked out for both of them.

Onward to Christmas season!