Friday Festivities

This morning we got up and had pancakes and then just hung out and watched cartoons.  I think this picture of Lexie & the kids sitting together in the chair is so adorable.

After pancakes it was time to put up the tree.  We got some Amy Grant Christmas music playing and went to town.  We had some trouble at the beginning getting the extension cord to work, but once we got the fuse replaced it worked just fine.  I’m glad we only have a 8’ Christmas tree and not a 16’ like Courtney said she has at her house.

We couldn’t reach the top branches, so Nate put Courtney up on his shoulders so she could put lights on the tall branches.  Then Jon came in and helped us finish the very top.

We were talking about how strong Nate was to keep Courtney up on his shoulders for so long (even though she weighs practically nothing).  I was saying he would be really strong if he could lift me up.  So, he tried and was actually able to do it.  Look at his face…classic!

This year we decided to put up the train for the kids to enjoy, which we haven’t done in the past 3 years.  They just laid there on their tummies and watched it go around and around for a long time.  They got so much enjoyment from the train, so I’m glad we put it up this year.

We asked Dad if he was going to take down the scary bat since it’s not Halloween anymore and instead of taking it down, he decided to make it a festive scary bat!

While we were bringing down all the boxes of Christmas dishes and decorations, Dad found a box of my stuff up in the attic.  There was a bunch of nostalgic stuff in there from when I was little.  For example, this is a thing Mom made for me to match  my teddy bear she made me. I thought it would be cute to get a picture of Autumn wearing it.  I’ll have to go back in my old pictures and see if I can find the one of me wearing it.

Lexie & Jon are obsessed w/ the Texas Longhorns and have been teaching Andrew to say, “Hook ‘Em Horns.”  Autumn wanted in on the fun too, and learned how to make the horns sign and say it.  It’s so adorable when Andrew says it.

Autumn & I went home b/c my car was having some troubles and so we took it over to Liberty’s for him to look at.  Luckily it was just the tube that connected the radiator to the engine.  He just cut off the bad part of the tube and reconnected it.  Autumn & I went home and got cleaned up for the day and she was hungry so we had some toast and a can of fruit.  She always wants to be up on the counter so she can see what’s going on.

Mom called and said everyone was going to Chipotle for lunch and that we should come meet them there.  I thought this picture of Andrew trying to take a bite of this monster-huge burrito was funny.

Nate & Courtney

Mom & Nick

Lex, Jon, Andrew, Me & Autumn

The family that fits in the same snuggie together, stays together! LOL!

When Dad got home from work, the kids wanted him to come look at the train w/ them.  I thought this was a sweet picture of everyone laying on the ground together to watch the train.

Mom had gone to Costco after we ate at Chipotle and she came home w/ these presents for the kids..an ADORABLE dress for Autumn that came w/ matching tights and then this Spiderman shirt for Andrew b/c he thinks he’s Peter Parker.

We spent the rest of the evening watching football and playing games like Rummikub and Kings, Queens & Peons.  For dinner we had grilled salmon and spinach.  Mom was going to make some homemade tartar sauce, and so she opened up this jar of pickles.  We tasted one of the pickles and it was really soggy and didn’t taste very good.  We also noticed the pickles were a weird color.  We looked at the side of the jar and noticed the sell by date was Nov 1999!  No wonder they didn’t taste very good…they were TEN years old!

It was a fun day getting the tree and lights up and just spending time together as a family.  I didn’t do any of the Black Friday shopping stuff.  I’ve always wanted to do it, but there’s never been anything I was really needing and wanting enough to get up at 4 am.  Maybe next year…