Thanksgiving Week

The day before Thanksgiving--at Grammy and PawPaw's (Jeff's parents).

For at least an hour, Korley would get her hands wet......



and make paw prints on the sidewalk.



While Jeff, PawPaw, and the nieces played volleyball.

Korley loves being with her older cousins.

So does Landry. She and Bailey are two peas in a pod.

Korley tore the streets up.....

and later cheered for the volleyball players.

Thanksgiving Day--at Gigi and PopPop's (my parents).

My dad carved the JET BLACK turkey.

Brady played the piano with the girls.

Landry looked like a teenager passing the time on the computer.

Korley worked some puzzles.

Any ideas where we went Friday night?

Thankfully, Lindsay and Brady did not wear the letter jackets.

Went to the Tech/Baylor game at Cowboys Stadium. We were high. Airplanes were flying below us.

In fact, there were only four rows above us. These were the only people higher than we were.

Two of my best college friends, Ann and Erin.

Good friends. Good family. Good week. Good Thanksgiving.

Competitions

This will be a quick post.

We're currently at Jeff's parents' house for Thanksgiving. We got here Monday night and have had a relaxing and enjoyable time. It's nice to be out of Lubbock for a few days.

A week ago today, Landry competed in her first UIL competition. She participated in Storytelling. Although she didn't make it to the final round, she did a fantastic job and we were so proud of her. Unlike her momma, she is not afraid of public speaking. Here she is with her teacher and Storytelling coach......

Also, this past Saturday, Landry had another belt test. She was going for her yellow belt--and got it!! She did wonderfully on all of her forms, and broke another board--this time doing the side kick.

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving!

Seniors

Landry and I are sitting on the couch watching the OU/Tech game.

More specifically, I'm watching--she's playing her DS.

The announcers mentioned that it's "senior day" for Texas Tech.

Landry said, "It's senior day?"

Me, "yeah, I suppose it is."

Landry, "So, are Grammy and PawPaw and Gigi and PopPop there?"

Things that sound the same....but definitely aren't

I won't say WHO,

but I will say.......

Baxter is being boarded next week while we're out of town for Thanksgiving.

We have to take him in to get his bordatella shot before he can stay at the kennel.

Someone called the vet to make an appt and asked if Baxter could be brought in for his bordello shot.

Kennel cough is okay. But, we don't want Baxter to get a case of the brothel while we're gone.

I'm Thankful....

that my Christmas decorations are out!


Sorry folks.


I'm sure I'll be accused of neglecting Thanksgiving, but I'm okay with that.


We're not going to be here for Thanksgiving. And, last weekend was the only weekend I had until mid-December to put out Christmas decorations. AND, it takes so dadgum long to get everything out that putting it up mid-December is just not worth it.


Plus, my house just feels cozier having the Christmas tree up--and we have more time to enjoy it.


However, I've paid dearly for my decision.


Korley has asked no less than a Korjillion times when Santa is coming. This is going to be a long 40ish days!


We put up the "fancy" tree and the mantle/fireplace stuff. I love the fancy tree. It has green/gold bows, these gold scarf-y things that go around the tree, and all gold ornaments. The fancy tree is uniform and orderly--my kind of tree.


The kids, however, are less impressed with the fancy tree. They much prefer the "fun" tree. Last year we didn't put up the fun tree (because after our move, I had no idea where the fun tree ornaments were), but this year we put up the fun tree in our bedroom. This tree has all of our ornaments on it that aren't gold. :) All of my ornaments from when I was a kid and on.....
As much as I like the fancy tree, the fun tree was fun for all of us to put together this year.


One thing that's always disappointing every year is to see what is not working or has broken from the previous year.


This year, half of the lights on one of my pre-lit porch trees was not working. I bought them two years ago at an after-Christmas sale. This was particularly annoying since this was the first time they had even been out of the box.


Also, my mom bought me these awesome ornaments last year for Christmas from places we had been together (Vegas, New York, Paris, London). The London ornament was a double decker bus and it was shattered. Again, annoying because it had never been out of the box.


And then, this......


This is my Willow Tree nativity scene. I know a lot of people don't like Willow Tree because they don't have faces. I think that's why I love WT. To me, WT figurines are simple and non-fussy.


Faceless is one thing.......But, what can make Willow Tree creepy is a DECAPITATED wiseman.


I unwrapped my carefully wrapped wiseman to find him in two pieces.


And the really unfortunate thing is I think this is the one that was bringing the gold.

European Vacation Memory

A couple of weeks ago, my sister uploaded to my photo account the pics she took from when my mom and I went to visit her in Europe last year.

I was looking through them the other night and ran across a couple that made me laugh that I had forgotten about.

The setting....Buckingham Palace.

Well, kind of. Actually, we were walking away from Buckingham Palace and were passing by some sort of gated service entrance? or parking lot? or something that didn't really look "that" special but was still on BP property.

Anyway, there were two guards guarding this very important parking lot.

Lindsay said, "OHHH!! We can't leave without y'all having your pictures made with the guards!"

So, we timidly walk over to the ARMED guards and my mom and I flank either side of one of the guards.

Lindsay snaps this pic (from several feet away).

Then, she rolls her eyes at me and says, "Can you move in a little closer?"

And I said, "NO! He's got a gun! With a sharp knife at the end!"

And then, through clinched teeth, the guard said, "I won't bite." And then he smiled.

Then he said, "Don't tell anyone I spoke."

So, I moved a few inches closer. See?

Yep! We made a BP guard SMILE and TALK!

Obnoxious Americans 1--BP guard 0

On second thought, maybe that's why he was guarding the spare parking lot and not the Queen Mum.

Out of Touch

I promise my next post will address one of the blog topics you people (okay, more specifically, Ryan) gave me in my last post.

But, for now, I have something else I need to do.

Literally about 5 minutes ago I remembered something from my childhood that I'm quite embarrassed of.

And, I need to apologize to everyone I knew when I was ages 8-10.

For those that don't know, my maiden name is Hall.

And, during the mid-80s I told dozens of people that Daryl Hall was related to me.

No, I didn't just tell. I swore he was related to me.

And, I told stories of us going to his house for Thanksgiving, and attending concerts, and him singing at our family reunions.

I guess I wanted to be cool.....and being related to Daryl Hall was my ticket. (????)

So, sorry to all of you people I lied to.

I'm not related to Daryl Hall.

I've never met him.

And, I accept the fact that I'm not cool.

I've Got Nothin'

Absolutely nada.

Not that my blog has been or ever will be informative or interesting.

But, I have blog block.

And, instead of me sitting around and waiting for the next Edwards picture-worthy event to occur, I turn to you dear readers (reader? Mom?).....

Give me a topic.

Anything.

Leave me a comment and give me something to blog about.

Anything.

(but, you know, within reason)

Halloween Night

I realize that this post is going to look a lot like the last post, only later in the day--but, I'm obliged to chronicle Halloween night.


We ended up trick-or-treating with our neighbors and the girls got to ride in the Texas Tech semi.


The important thing, in my humble opinion, was that the truck matched their costumes.









This was the first year that Korley *got* trick-or-treating. She couldn't get from house-to-house fast enough. If there had been a 3-year-old contest for fastest trick-or-treating, I guarantee you Korley would have been tough to beat!!


Our girls even trick-or-treated at our house!



We had a really fun Halloween--hope you all did, too!