Oh Christmas Tree

The day after we got home from Virginia we headed to the Christmas Tree farm to cut ours down. 

Sophie trying her best to saw the trunk. 

Dave and the girls with the kill. 

Later that week we decorated the tree. Definitely one of my favorite things to do in the Christmas season. I love taking out all of the ornaments and remembering the story each has. Especially the homemade ones from the girls. 

Lydia helped decorate too

The final product! 

Benson stayed by the fire and monitored our process. 

Earlier that day Lydia took the girls to see Santa at the King of Prussia mall. Sophie is asking for a stuffed unicorn, LOL dolls (which are apparently the hot item this year), a makeup kit, and a surprise.  Lauren just wants a stuffed cat. We'll see what Santa delivers. 

Thanksgiving 2017

We headed down to Charlottesville for Thanksgiving again this year. We got there late Tuesday night and stayed until Saturday. That gave us lots of time to visit with friends while we were there. I met up with Jenny, Samantha, and all of their kids for lunch on Wednesday. It's been a while since I've seen them and all of the kids are so big! They all got along really well. I helped that we ate at a restaurant with an arcade ;)

The kid crew: Lauren, Darby, Bracey, Sophie, Mary, Kaylee, and Parker in the back. 

And then I went and saw Sarah and her kids, who were in a new house in Holly Meade. Sophie and Lexi had a lot of fun playing together, and also playing sardines with Kali and Luke (what good sports those older kids are!). 

Lexi and Sophie. These two have known each other for a long time! 

We had the usual Thanksgiving crew, including Dick and Suzy. We all stayed at Mom and Dad's house. It was pretty tight, but we made it work.

Here's Nana (who turned 92 in October) showing off her new iPhone. Finally, she's made it to the modern age. Carley even signed her up for Instagram! 

Bestie cousins, Ari and Lauren. 

As we've done for the last few years, we deep fried the turkeys (2 of them). Doug was the fry master. He's perfected the rub and dropping of the turkey in hot oil. 

The Thanksgiving crew! 

The day after Thanksgiving Dave took Lauren hiking up to the top of Humpback Rock. She was a trooper and walked the whole thing herself. Here she is taking in the amazing view.