It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Happy belated Thanksgiving! We had a great time in Michigan with family, and hope you were able to enjoy time with your family, as well.

The lights in downtown Rochester




Ava seemed to be overjoyed hanging-out with all grandparents, some cousins and other family. She enjoyed the big-girl bed at Grandma Pam's, the cardboard Princess Castle at Grandpa Dean and Grandma Dolly's, the fun Elmo-ride at Grandpa and Grandma Carey's, running around with Jordan at Aunt Sherry's, all of the holiday decorations and everyone's hugs and tickles.

We were able to take a ride through downtown Rochester to view the holiday lights along Main Street. Each building is lit in a specific color. So many people were out enjoying the snow falling and the holiday festivities! Ava pointed out the colors of buildings, although (as usual :-) most buildings were "blue", per Ava. Grandpa Dean and Grandma Dolly taught Ava "see ya!". She now likes to say "see ya!" when she says good-bye. :-)

Grammy gives Ava's wagon a push


Ava and Lora fit into the tiny wagon


The drive up was 11 hours. Ava was a trooper. She slept from her normal bedtime until we arrived (2 a.m.), at which point she woke-up and partied a bit. We drove through rain from Dayton, OH on, but were fortunate that it didn't freeze. Upon arriving, Ava quickly went back to bed. She enjoyed showing us the "big girl bed" where she slept, in the morning.

We didn't take many pictures this time around, but just thoroughly enjoyed being with family. Ava and Lora were able to play together on Friday night. They're both blondies and about the same size. It was cute to see them both playing together.

Grammy and Shelly


Two little dolls


My sister cooked a nice dinner for us on Monday night, before we left. We were able to see snow at her place (the boys built a snow fort), but also have nice weather for driving back the next day. We ate entirely way too much, but all dinners were wonderful... Let the holiday season begin?!?

On the way back from MI, it took us 12 hours to get home. We had a tire blow-out in the middle of Kentucky... Fortunately Doug was able to guide us over to the side of I-75 with ease. When he tried to change the tire, the cheap-0 jack buckled under the weight of the truck (on uneven pavement). We then had to call 911, but a Kentucky highway assistance vehicle came first (just happened to be driving along, he said). He changed the tire to the spare for us (with a better jack) and let us inflate all tires with the air compressor from his truck. We were lucky to have a full-sized, fully-treaded spare. Nice! We were off again, but our return to GA was delayed by an hour. We were thankful that no one was hurt, and that it didn't set us back too much.

Doug wanted to take a picture of the tire. I didn't know why? For your viewing pleasure :-) Notice the entire sidewall is ripped apart.


Entertainment, holiday style :-)


The tree is now up, and decorations around the house. We're plannning on decorating the tree tonight, and baking some cookies. Ava already seems excited about all of the holiday decorations around the house. She pointed up at the stairway banister and smiled this morning, noticing the railing wrapped in garland. She already figured out how to turn the lights on and off on the Christmas tree (we step on a button on the floor to turn then on / off). I'm really looking forward to celebrating tonight!

Aunt Linda cracking Ava up


Having some fun


I think this is the first year I'm super-geeked about Christmas. Last year Ava went with the flow and seemed to enjoy Christmas, but this year I think she's really appreciating all of the decorations. It's fun to be starting our own little family's traditions!

Our family Christmas Tree Cookies


This year, we'll try our hand at making "frosted Christmas tree cookie stacks". You put green food coloring in the cookie dough, cut out the cookies with different sizes of snowflake cookie cutters (you can also use a star-shaped cookie cutter) and then bake them. After letting them cool, you frost the top of each cookie and stack them (alternating placement) from largest to smallest, creating a tree. Drip frosting on the tree (to look like snow). Sprinkle with green sugar and add red hot candies to look like ornaments. This is a picture of what it might look like: http://www.candylandcrafts.com/images/xmastreekit.jpg. I'm not sure where my recipe came from, but this recipe / set of instructions looks similar: http://www.wilton.com/recipes/articles/cookietreeinstructions.pdf

Happy holidays!!! Enjoy the season!

With love,
Shelly