Thanksgiving

Better late than never, here is a recap of our wonderful Thanksgiving weekend in Williamsburg.  We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and were able to go to Great Wolf Lodge, thanks to Day Passes that Bean and Poppy gave us.  Leah is tall enough now to go on every water slide, and the kids were anxious to have our whole family ride the "Tornado".  I may have squealed/screamed the entire time, and was teased mercilessly by my family, but the photos prove that we were all smiling at the end of this crazy ride!

The kids loved splashing and playing at GWL, and enjoyed every attraction there.  It was such a fun start to the weekend!

Thanksgiving Day was filled with food and family.  The kids started the day going out for a buffet breakfast with Daddy & Poppy, and our family visited Great Grammy later in the morning.  

The Charlottesville Winterhoffs also arrived on Thursday, and I love this picture of Maya and Winnie, who posed together in the same spot 11 Thanksgivings ago!

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bob hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year, which meant more fun with cousins!  The girls taught the Daddies how to make bracelets, while the boys played Exploding Kittens and computer games:

Thanksgiving Dinner

On Friday, the Richmond Winterhoffs joined us and we went to Colonial Williamsburg.  It was a gorgeous day to explore the historic sights and walk down Duke of Gloucester Street:

Our family (plus 2 dog cousins!).

We are so thankful for wonderful memories with family, and for these special times together!

Snow!

On Friday morning, it started snowing.  The meterologists assured everyone that there would be little to no accumulation.  "The ground is too warm..." they said.  "There may be a few flurries..." they reported.

However, by 2:00 on Friday afternoon, this is what it looked like outside.  We had 4 inches of snow in just a few hours:

I waited all day for a call from school which would notify parents of an early dismissal due to this unforseen weather event.  No such call came, and by the time the bus dropped off the children on Friday afternoon, it was a Winter Wonderland.  Winnie waited anxiously for her sister and brother to get home, and the kids literally squealed with joy and excitement when they ran off the bus:  

"We ran to the windows ALL day long to look outside!" Leah exclaimed.  Poor, poor teachers.  I saw one of them post on social media that "the kids have Snow Brain!"  I can only imagine how much energy there was in those classrooms.  It took Luke all of two seconds to pick up a snowball to hurl at us:

Mommy realized that everyone has grown quite a bit since they last donned their snow pants, and made a mental note to buy some soon that will actually cover the tops of the kids' boots:

The kids played outside for a long time, and the snowfall continued into Saturday, so all of our activities were cancelled.  Daddy pushed the kids on their sleds (and Mommy was so happy to have the snow days fall on a weekend when Big Boss is home to be our favorite snow buddy!):   

On Sunday, there was still enough snow to play, and after church, the kids (and Daddy) built snowmen.  It was the perfect snow for it, and at one point, we had four snowmen in our yard!

Here's a picture of the L&L arguing about "whose snow it is...".  Mark told them, "There is an entire acre of snow that 'belongs to us' in our yard... and there is no reason to be fighting over that particular square foot of snow."   I had to include this photo, in case we nostalgically look back some day at all the smiling pictures of playing in the snow and think about how "easy" snow days are.  Although we loved our quiet, unstructured weekend, we were also happy that life as normal resumed by Monday.

On Monday morning, the kids were back at school and most of the snow melted- Hooray!  It was a perfect surprise snow, and the first December snowfall in central NC in 7 years.  With 9 more days until the official start of winter, we've gotten a jump start on the fun that this season brings!    

Christmas is Coming!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  In fact, I wrote a detailed blog post about it, complete with lots of pictures and stories.  And then this morning, when I wanted to proofread/publish it, it all magically disappeared.  Sigh.  So, in an effort not to be discouraged by losing hours of work, I am proceeding on with my first Christmas post, which was also ready to publish (and somehow was spared from being deleted).  Mark and I have a phrase that we use a lot this time of year:  "Spread the Yuletide!"  which is our way of saturating the world with holiday cheer when we encounter road rage, stress, or Grinches/Scrooges.  I'll recreate my Thanksgiving post sometime soon, but in the meantime, I'm going to spread some yuletide with these festive pictures of us getting ready for Christmas! 

We got our Christmas tree last weekend, and the kiddos hung every ornament themselves.  I absolutely adore that 2/3 of our ornaments are clustered at their eye level, right in the front of the tree, and I'm not moving a single one.  Sweet Winnie supervised and was happy when we decided to only put on her antlers and scarf (vs. her Santa suit and Jingle Bells, too!).  

The children's 2017 ornaments arrived, and Leah's is darling! 

Luke knew that he wanted a Harry Potter-themed ornament, but we had no idea that there was such a vast selection of HP Christmas decorations.  He chose this one, which is perfect for our little Hogwarts fan! 

Christmas is still magical at our house, and we had milk and cookies with Santa on Friday night at Dewberry Farm.  It was such a cute event, complete with a hayride, fire pit, and rustic Christmas decorations:

Both kids happily climbed up to sit with Santa.  We had a toddler behind us in line (who made it clear that he was NOT happy about the idea of meeting Santa) and the mom just sighed wistfully.  I assured her that I remembered those years of screaming Santa pictures, and was thankful that we've come so far! 

It's the most wonderful time of the year, and we look forward to this time of celebration and preparation for Christmas!