Thanksgiving 2006

Here are some pics from our Thanksgiving. Andrew's favorite foods are all part of Thanksgiving dinner so he of course loved it! We had Thanksgiving dinner at Chad's dad's house and then drove to Nashville to spend time with Melody's family. We went shopping on Friday and then went over to Aunt Jean's on Sunday after church. Andrew had fun and he is getting SO big! :)

Just a few pics...

Just some cute pictures from yesterday...

43 days until Christmas...

And Andrew saw Santa for the first time today! We went to the Collierville Town Square to look around at the shops and see Santa and hear a few school groups sing. By the time we saw Santa, Andrew was tired and ready to go home (so were we!), but we decided to go say hi anyway since there weren't a lot of kids around. Andrew was a little concerned about going to see this strange man in a furry red suit! He didn't cry but he sure got his pout on! Santa was very nice and let Andrew try again after Andrew watched a few other kids go and tell Santa what they want for Christmas. Andrew still wasn't sure what to think. Then Santa went to walk around and Andrew sat in his chair and when Santa came back he thought he'd try a different approach. Oh, well, Santa said "maybe next year!" But then he told us he would be back December 2nd, so maybe we will go see him again then (or maybe we'll just go for the milk and cookies and stories and singing).

Just an ordinary weekend...

We didn't do anything special this weekend... which is why it was so special. It has been a long time since we haven't had somewhere to run to on a weekend and we know with the holidays coming up life is going to get even more hectic! On Saturday, we had fun introducing Andrew to the fall leaves and letting him explore our backyard and the swingset and little car we got with the house. Then we went to a park near our house so Andrew could swing in the baby swings. I made pumpkin bread (a new recipe that I didn't really like so if you have a good recipe send it my way!) and we went to the library and Andrew checked out his first books. He got Spot's Toy Box (which reminds me... if you have little ones check out Spot's Web Page ) and Five Little Monkeys Jump on the Bed, and cried when it was time to give his books to the librarian to check them out. Here are some pictures from our weekend!

Holding on to a moment...

Our Christmas tree is filled with ornaments which mean something to us -- ornaments Chad or I made while we were growing up or since we have been married, ornaments people have given us over the years, ornaments we have purchased on vacation and which tell the story of our life together. This year we get to add some more special ornaments... and I found one this past week at a conference my work hosted. I was captivated not so much by the artwork as by the poem, which you can read in part on the card above. (Not that the artwork isn't wonderful, I am just more of an artist of words than a visual artist!). It captured beautifully the miracle of the baby we are blessed to spend Christmas with this year. The artist's work is beautiful... it isn't all on her website (and unfortunately you can't read her poetry on the website), but at least you can get a taste.