Thanksgiving

We had assumed we would have a house full of people on Thanksgiving, as we wanted to ensure that everyone at our small church was with family or friends during this holiday. But as it turned out, everyone had places to go...so we spent the day at our home. This was our first holiday ever that we were not with family!!

I cooked up a storm and we had a great day and a great meal!

The all-important turkey was brined the day before and basted with whiskey and butter...

...while it roasted, followed by a final few bastings of homemade peach schnapps during the last hour.

Miss Maddie made the acorn biscuits. She's a biscuit pro now! 

And even Daddy got in on the cooking action with some bacon-wrapped, chèvre-stuffed dates.

Daddy carved the bird and dinner was had!

 

And we had apple pie and pumpkin pie for dessert. Not being a good pie maker, I was pleased that they both simply turned out!

The day after Thanksgiving we headed to Lowes to get our Christmas tree. Yeah, don't think we'll be going there next year! The needles were falling off the trees. We are just too used to chopping them down and getting them FRESH...not to mention that we paid more money for this 8 ft tree than we used to for a 12 ft freshly cut beauty!!

I really missed having a HUGE tree, sigh. Our tree just looked so small, though Braden kept reminding me it really wasn't. And I don't think HE missed it a bit! Do you know how easy it is to throw a measly 8-footer on top of the van, pull it off, carry it inside, and pop it in a normal sized tree stand?

We decorated the tree...and sadly...this was THE YEAR. The year I knew would come eventually. One of The Year Ornaments was broken. Oh well. It will just have to live on via photos.

Here's the updated run-down...minus this year's ornament of course, because I forgot to take a photo! I'll have to do that.

2001 - Dating - Braden won my ornament at a Christmas party exchange.

2002 - A kind wedding gift from someone (we don't remember who), which we thought was a bit on the schmaltzy side...but it gave us the idea to start The Year Ornaments.

2003 - From our trip to Ireland 

2004 - Shawny gave us this for Christmas that year, commemorating our entrance into parenthood with Maddie's arrival that fall. 

2005 - I think Braden put this in my stocking. 

2006 - We forgot about getting an ornament, but this was given to us. So I stuck a photo of us in it - now FOUR. Seemed appropriate. 

2007 - It has sadly met its fate. A shiny silver retro ornament. Maybe we'll find a similar replacement one day. 

2008 - Braden stuck this in my stocking, one of my favorites. 

2009 - The Mouse - a somewhat plain replacement for this adorable mouse I found at Anthropologie, and thinking it would be in the store I didn't order it online. But alas he was not at the store, and by then sold out online.  

2010 - Braden comes through again - this was in my stocking, another favorite. 

2011 - The woodland squirrel

2012 - A pretty ornament we can remember nothing about!

2013 - The ugly fox. 

2014 - The House - We were to have been in our house last Christmas, and that was really hard for me. A house ornament for the house that was coming. 

2015 - A cute and FINISHED house! It seemed appropriate. I'll have to take a photo though, and perhaps a few re-dos as well...some of these photos - yikes!! 

yummy chicken dinner

A yummy roast chicken and potato dinner, courtesy of my baking dish from Nana.

Maisie in an heirloom outfit

I also put Maisie in one of Nana's outfits. However, Maisie was acting like a two-almost three year old and smiling like one. I was hard pressed to get these two shots!

on to march... duke in an heirloom outfit

I put Duke in the sweater Nana made for him when he was born. It was a bit snug but I wanted photos of Duke wearing it.

Cheeeese!

Oh no, Mom, please, no more photos!

maisie's new chair

My mom brought this doll's rocking chair over for the girls.  My sisters and I used to play with them when we were younger--Grandma had given them to us along with beautiful dolls. 

Maisie took one look and decided to join her new friend "Dolly" on her rocking chair. 

Perfect for a cutie-patootie peewee like our Miss May-May. 

duke in the heirloom suit

Years ago when my dad was a baby, Nana was visiting Grandpap's parents and his mother was getting rid of some items...

...one of them being this suit which had been Grandpap's as a baby. Nana asked Nannie for it, and she gave it to her. 

Nana proceeded to have each of her boys wear it.  And she really didn't think much beyond that.

But somewhere along the way...I think when Cauthen was born...it was decided to carry on this tradition for the boys in the family.  

So Cauthen wore the suit, and Aunt Marissa had his picture taken in it.

And thus the album was born. 

The album that contains photos of the boys in the family, either wearing the suit, or at least a photo of the boy, because some boys never got a chance to wear it or never got a photo taken in the suit. 

Upon Duke's birth, Nana sent me the suit.  It's been waiting in a safe place in my closet for 7 months. 

Duke was finally big enough to wear the suit.  And my was he a round ball of cute chubbiness in this dapper heirloom suit!

(Summer can't come fast enough...this boy needs to be in short pants and shirts that show off all his rolls and dimples.)

I wished he could wear the suit all day, because he was just adorable in it--and it fit perfectly.

But the suit must be preserved!  More babies are on the way this year, and some or all of them could be boys.  

(Oh my goodness, what a face!)

I'm happy to say we made it through the photo shoot without a drop of spit-up...a MAJOR accomplishment for the Duke-ster aka The Spit-Up Champ. 

And here I am with my boy...in all my morning bathrobe, not yet showered glory. Duke was really cheerful, so I seized those minutes of happiness to do a photo shoot. 

And more than lookin' good, I wanted a picture of me with my baby in the suit.   

So glad for this fun tradition, and so glad  these pix came out! 

(As you can tell, I couldn't choose a favorite photo.)

Special Outfits

I have a small stack of special outfits knit by Nana for my kids.  I was excited to pull this one out for the first time for Maisie. I got her all dressed for church, and she looked so cute!  Then we went to leave for church and the van battery was dead.  Bummer. We missed church.  Since we weren't headed to church, I decided to take a few pix of Maisie in her dress and hat.  Well, let's just say she was a bundle of energy who didn't want to sit still for any pictures! 

 This is the "see if Maddie and Caleb can make her smile" shot.

 The "I'm being silly, Mommy" shot.

 The "Look, Mommy, I can get out of the chair" shot.

 The "I'm all done, Mom" shot

 The "dimples" shot -- she's got the cutest dimples!

A great shot, but you can't really see the outfit.  Oh well!