Old Tree, New Ornaments

My Christmas tree is old and falling apart. It's actually Granny Buie's old tree (from like three trees ago). There are parts of the tree that are being held together by clear packaging tape at this moment. It's pretty sad. I was hoping to get a new tree on Black Friday this year, but I couldn't find one that I liked for a price that I was willing to pay. Anyway, the kids don't mind that the tree is old. To them, it is the most beautiful tree in the world. They were so excited when I dragged the tree down out of the attic last Saturday. After waiting (impatiently) for me to assemble and light the tree, the kids were able to add their ornaments to it. I started something new this year, and it went over pretty well. What I did was purchase a Christmas ornament from different places that we visited during the year. Therefore, when it was time to decorate the tree, the kids had three new ornaments to add: a crab ornament from Fernandina Beach, a bear ornament from the Smoky Mountains, and an angel/snowman from Asheville. Even though all of their ornaments ended up at the very bottom of the tree, the kids made sure that their new ornaments were placed front-and-center. Here are some pictures of what will hopefully be the final use of our current Christmas tree.

Black Friday

Black Friday is my favorite day of the year. Keeping with tradition, my sisters and I hit the stores early on Friday morning in search of bargains. Things were a little different this year since a lot of the stores opened on Thanksgiving Day. Because of this, it seemed like there were a lot more people out. We weren't about to pull an all-nighter, so we began early on Friday. This picture of us was actually taken at about 3:45 am- right before all of the fun began. I love shopping on Black Friday because I have so much fun with my sisters. I also like all of the sales. The biggest deal that I found this year was at the Polo outlet. I got Ralph Lauren (Polo) towels regularly $26 each on sale for less than $4. Wow!

The kids have also come to love Black Friday because they get to spend the night with Granny Mel. I think the only person who probably doesn't like Black Friday is poor Brian. As you can probably imagine, Toys R Us turns into a war zone on this day...and as the manager, Brian has to tough it out all day. This year Toys R Us opened at 10pm on Thursday. Brian was at work from 7:45pm on Thursday until 3pm on Friday. That's about 19 hours straight at the busiest place in town. Ouch. At the end of the day, they literally had to put him in a buggy and wheel him out to his car.

Princesses on Ice

This weekend, Hannah and I took the girls to see Disney Princesses on Ice. We had a wonderful time (barring the flat tire we had on the way to Savannah). The show began at 3:30, so we left early in order to have enough time to eat somewhere nice. I seriously think that the girls would have been happy just to have hung out in downtown Savannah all day. The weather was beautiful, so there were people out everywhere. We ended up eating a really good meal at the Cafe at City Market. After lunch, we walked to the Civc Center for the show.

After navigating the maze of venders' booths, we found our way to our seats. I now understand why the tickets to get in were so cheap- because they plan to sell you everything under the sun at ridiculously high prices once you're in. Anyway, I was really happy with the location of our seats. We were right near the front by the castle. The show began and the girls were so happy. It was like two hours of total bliss for them. I looked at their little faces and they were grinning ear-to-ear the entire time. The show was basically a synopsis of all of the princess tales, and it featured all of the kids' favorite princesses- Jazmine, Ariel, Aurora, Mulan, Snow White, Belle, and Cinderella. I was so impressed by the quality of the show. It was way beyond my expectations. For the grand finale, all of the pricesses plus Mickey, Minnie, Tinkerbell, and Goofy skated around and ended up on the castle waving at everyone. In the eyes of a four-year-old girl, this is complete magic. Seeing our sweeties so happy softened Hannah and I up to the point where we were willing to buy a souvenir for the girls. So, each got a dishwasher safe Tinkerbell cup that came with a snowcone in it. The show definitely left an impression on Olivia. She has been "ice skating" all over our kitchen floor today.

Happy Fall, Y'all

I absolutely love my hometown. The people are friendly, there's little crime, and the education system is top-notch. To make things even better, there are various clubs and organizations that are constantly coming up with family-friendly things to do. One of the things that I like the most is that the town looks great- especially on Main Street. For example, each fall the merchants decorate "Gourd Heads" and place them outside of their businesses. It makes the whole town look so festive. For the past two Sundays, Owen and Olivia have wanted to go and "visit" the gourd heads after Church. I couldn't resist taking a few pictures. Happy fall, y'all.

o

Ha Ha Halloween

For the second year in a row, the city of Blackshear scheduled its trick-or-treating around the Georgia-Florida game. So, like every other citizen of Blackshear, we celebrated Halloween on Oct. 28th. As you can probably tell, our theme this year was "clowns". We had such a fun time in our silly outfits. We began the evening at Granny Buie's house where we met up with the Murray and Boyette girls. Everyone looked so cute in their costumes. We took a few pictures and then began the trick-or-treating. We spent all of our time visiting the houses in Granny's neighborhood. We borrowed Papa's golf cart so that we could get around faster. This actually went well with our theme. Papa's golf cart is a two-seater, so we all had to squeeze into a small area. We called it our "clown cart". We could hear people commenting on our costumes and our cart as we rode down the street. We even had a few random people take pictures of us.

The trick-or-treating itself was so much fun. Olivia remembered doing it last year, so she knew what to expect. Owen, on the other hand did not know what was going on at first. He was so cute at the first house. He walked up behind Olivia with his little bucket and basically followed her lead. She stuck her bucket out and said, "trick-or-treat", and so Owen did the same. They both recieved candy, and the minute that piece of candy hit Owen's bucket, you could see the light come on in his head. He totally understood the concept of trick-or-treating at that moment. After that first house, the kids were warmed up and ready to go. Once we pulled up to a house, the kids would jump out of the golf cart, run up to the door of the house, say trick-or-treat, and run back. It was kind of funny because Owen's costume didn't fit him well and his pants would start falling down when he ran. Those pants didn't stop him though. They'd be halfway to his knees and he'd still be running. The kids ended up with a lot of candy which they will be snacking- a piece or two at the time- for the next couple of weeks. We had an absolute blast this Halloween. The kids were at the perfect age to enjoy it, and I honestly cannot wait until next year.

The Biltmore House

The last stop on our road trip was the Biltmore House in Asheville, Nc. This house was built by George Vanderbilt in the late 1800s. It was enormous. We were able to tour about 40 of the 250 rooms. It was amazing to me that anyone had a house this big. In reading about its construction, they had to lay 3 miles of railroad track just to bring in the material to build the house. My experience at the Biltmore went like this- I walked around listening to the audiotour with my mouth hanging open in awe... until I realized that one of my children was trying to touch something or get past the ropes. At that point, I quickly came back down to earth and grabbed whichever child it was (this time) before they could mess with anything. Repeat. It did help that my mom was there to help me reign them in.



















After touring the house, we had lunch at The Stable Cafe. As the name suggests, it used to be the horse stable. I actually think that our booth was in a former horse stall. I have a picture of the cafe below. You'll probably notice the Christmas tree. Apparently, Christmas is a big event at the Biltmore House. They were busy putting up holiday decorations in many of the rooms while we were there.



































Following lunch, we did a little shopping, walked around in the gardens and conservatory, and then began our journey back home. Overall, our fall break trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway was a lot of fun. The kids and I had a great time, and my parents did, too. This trip also proved to me that my kids do well with road trips. Maybe my parents will let us tag along when they do the "Big O" in a few years. Hmmm....

Blue Ridge Parkway

The third day of our road trip was the day that we actually spent driving the Blue Ridge Parkway. We drove from Roanoke, Va to Asheville, Nc. The drive was about 264 miles, and it took all day to complete. We figured out rather quickly that we couldn't get out at all of the stops and overlooks, so we alternated between stopping to take pictures and taking pictures from the car. The most scenic part of the drive was the area between Boone and Asheville. This part of the parkway was at a higher elevation, and the leaves were just beautiful here. We also saw fields full of pumpkins, cabbage, and corn. The kids liked looking out for tunnels. We drove the parkway on a Sunday, and it seemed like everyone was outdoors enjoying the beautiful fall day. There were tons of people picnicing, laying out (sleeping), and reading on the side of the road. Others were riding the road in their antique cars or on their motorcycles. If I lived in this area, this is exactly how I would like to spend such a gorgeous day. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the drive.