Thanksgiving 2013

We spent Thanksgiving in Texas with my family, and for the first time in a long while I was actually ready when it came time to leave.  I know my parents were certainly ready to have their house back!  But for the first time, we got to spend enough time with my niece that we were okay when it was time to part.  I had forgotten how much tattling takes place between little people, and the energy/noise level is insane.

We arrived late Tuesday night and had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday in order to accommodate my brother who had to fly out on Thursday.  We soaked up as much of baby Weston as we could!

Collin is always petting Weston's head, like a puppy :)

Because we did "Thanksgiving" on Wednesday, Jarrod and I were able to take Collin to see Santa on Thursday.  We have taken Collin to the Gaylord Texan every year since he was a baby just three months old, and every year he has gotten his picture made with the same wonderful Santa.  The first year, he was too young to know what was going on, but when he was one and two, he decided that sitting on Santa's lap was not for him.  So I have pictures of him screaming, crying and reaching out for me from the past two years.  I feel like it's something we will all laugh about in the future!

This year, Collin took note and realized that most other kids seem to like Santa.  He decided he would be a big boy and smile pretty on Santa's lap, and that's exactly what he did.

Since we went on Thanksgiving day, there wasn't any traffic getting there, we got right into the parking garage and parked on the bottom level.  Best of all, when it was time to leave, the parking attendant waived us out and told us not to worry about the $13 parking fee!  We declared it all a Thanksgiving miracle.  We had enough time to let Collin see some of the Christmas decorations.

And then it was slightly overshadowed by the crazies waiting at Walmart for Black Friday to begin.  We had to run in on our way home to pick up a few things...  I really thought since we were only getting a few food items, we would be fine.  The sales hadn't even begun yet, but I'm still baffled by what we saw.  People sitting in lawn chairs in the aisles, people standing with their hands on the items they were waiting for and refusing to make any room in the aisles so we could get through to the groceries. Insane in the membrane.

So most of our visit was spent hanging out and watching Collin play with his cousins.  Tinsley called me Aunt Nicki without having to be reminded of who I was.  One night when we were about to fall asleep, I said to Jarrod with a gooshy smile on my face, "Tinsley called me Aunt Nicki today".  And then he said, "Yeah, somebody tried to call me Aunt Jarrod today."

Don't be deceived by these angelic faces; the only way we could get them to smile was by shouting donkey poop!

Who doesn't love playing in a leaf pile?

These two monkeys had to "talk" to each other on two different cell phones.

Jarrod and I did sneak away Friday night to go see Hunger Games.  We both really enjoyed the movie, probably more than the first one.  What was more fun though, was the two of us trying to remember how to act when we are without a 3 year old.

And here's a freebie...I found Collin like this early one morning.  Apparently he rolled off of his bed and decided staying on the floor to sleep was a good idea.