Happy Thanksgiving!!

We had a small group this year - Amanda and her bunch went camping with friends for Thanksgiving and did they ever have a beautiful weekend for it!  The weather has been awesome lately - cool evenings, warm days and clear skies...perfect fall weather!  We have so much to be thankful for - each other, our moms, our kids, our home, time to travel and the wonderful memories and most of all, for our Lord and Savior, Jesus!  Count your blessings every day, not just one!!

Mum came over Wednesday afternoon and stayed until Friday morning. She brought this whiskey infused with cranberries, oranges and cinnamon and we mixed a shot of it with a splash of cranberry Sprite.  Was it ever tasty!!

Haley chasing her laser light up and down the hallway.  She is hilarious ripping after that red dot!

Kenneth and Mum getting their cooking done.

Loading up their plates!

We made smaller amounts but we still had our turkey, ham, pineapple dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin crunch, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate pie.

Sent this pic to Katie of her Dad eating her Thanksgiving dinner since she is still in St. Louis.

Daniel getting his plate loaded.

Used Grandmother's tablecloth and napkins for dinner.

We sent Katie pictures of all of us...wish she could've been here!

Nana finally made it...two hours after we were done eating!

The mothers visiting...:)

Took Haley for a walk to make room for dessert!

Daniel checking to see if the fish were biting.  I have a bowl of filets in my fridge right now!

The holiday baking has begun!!

You can tell the holidays are upon us by the looks of my kitchen! For the next month, it will look like this!

ICE!!!

On Saturday morning, November 18th, Mum drove over to the house and we headed for the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine, TX to see ICE.  It was a windy drive over and I was happy to turn my vehicle over to the valet at the hotel - I got my workout in hanging on to the steering wheel!  We dropped our stuff in the room and headed over to Will Call to get our tickets for the show.  They seemed to be rather disorganized and we ended up waiting for a while, but it was worth it because we walked past the line with hundreds of people who probably had to wait up to four, maybe five hours to get in and were in in about five minutes!  Being a hotel guest has it's perks and we were thankful for sure.  The theme was "T'was the Night Before Christmas", there were over two million pounds of ice and the entire venue was kept a nine degrees.  We were issued a parka and were transported into the magical land of ICE!!  So many beautiful ice sculptures and so much detail - it was fantastic.  After seeing the storybook come to life, we entered a room with ice slides for the kids and a beautiful Christmas tree, then on to the magnificent Nativity scene...it was an absolutely wonderful show.  Afterwards, we headed to the Riverwalk Cantina for drinks, a buffet and a visit with Maggie and Kate.  We went up to the room and hung out and visited for a while, then they were on their way.  Mum and I sat on the balcony, visited and people-watched until 11:30...way past my bedtime!  Sunday morning we checked out and went to Mum's old church in Colleyville.  She enjoyed visiting with many of the members and we didn't leave town to head home until 1:15.  We thanked the Lord for safe travels and wonderful memories!

Heading out!

We made it!

These were some mighty big balls...:)  The people behind me probably weren't happy I was taking pictures.

Picture of the brochure that shows the atrium very nicely. Too bad it's sideways, but it's still pretty!

This little girl is wondering where we're going. Poor little thing probably didn't get into the show for another two hours.

We went in the back way.  Headed down the long hall to get our coats.

This blue lighting was in the whole show!

EVERYTHING in here was ice - it was incredible!

The detail was amazing in ALL of these sculptures.

All of the kids loved the slide.  I even thought about going down...:)

This is all ice!  In Alaska we saw sculptures, but not with colored ice like these.



Baby Jesus...this was a beautiful scene. So large I couldn't get it all in one shot. And there were so many people!

She was not happy I'm still taking pictures and all she wants is food!!

View from our balcony!

Mum, Maggie and Kate

Hanging out, visiting and people watching

Maggie and Kate waving goodbye!

And this little girl had fun at camp while we were gone!!  We all had a wonderful weekend!