End of Thanksgiving, Beginning of Christmas

Though Thanksgiving came to an end we didn't let that end our Louisiana fun. On Friday we tried to do a bit of shopping, but not being brave enough to get up at 5 AM, we didn't hit the stores until about 11. There were no good deals left. Oh well. On the way home we went in search of a couple of geocaches. We were not very successful. However, we did get some fun swamp pictures. Here's my cute family:

There was supposed to be a cache by this bridge:

But there were too many muggles (non-geocaching people) around to make a good search for it. But look at the fun swamp:

Next time we go visit we are definitely going to take a swamp boat ride. Alex wasn't too thrilled with all of our driving around:

So cute!

On Saturday Andrea and I left all the kids with the men and took off for Houston. Our trip was 2-fold, 1. visit IKEA and 2. pick up Clayton from the airport. The weather was terrible which made the roads nice and empty for us. Andrea had never been to IKEA before so I gave her the grand tour. It was very tempting to buy all sorts of things, but I managed to walk out with only a picture frame. We gathered Clayton from the airport, had dinner at Cracker Barrel and headed back home.

And that's where we discovered the boys had been playing Betty Crocker. Stacy even donned an apron:

What they were doing was making candy.

Yum. Stacy is quite the candy maker. He has all the equipment and works it like a pro.

Got to keep a close eye on the sugar temperature.

Those are all the molds for the suckers. Good stuff! I ate a sour apple one today and it was so good. I think he ended up making over 100 of them.

And that brought our Thanksgiving trip to an end. On Sunday we hopped in the car around 10:40 and figured we'd be home by 6. No such luck. Between the pouring down rain and two separate freeway closures we didn't get home until after 10:30 PM. Yuck. But we did stop to eat at Cracker Barrel (yes, I ate there twice in 2 days). It was a long day. But I passed the time listening to Austenland, a book about a Jane Austen obssessed girl, by Shannon Hale. It was pretty good and passed the time quickly.

And now that the Thanksgiving festivities are over, on with the Christmas ones! I haven't gotten to pull out my own Christmas decorations for 2 years, so I was really excited to get to decorate. I pulled everything out this morning before I even got out of my pajamas. Ella stole my Santa hat so she could get in the mood too:

We had to make a Wal-mart run for a new string of lights and another stocking, since Alex wasn't around the last time we had our own Christmas. The poor kid also has a busted stocking holder:

It was broken when we bought them a few years ago and figured we'd get it fixed if we ever needed it. Well, I think it's just going to stay broken this year. He'll be lucky to get a photo in it. But I don't mind, I'm just so glad to actually have a fireplace to hang my stockings on this year!

Hooray! The kids had so much fun hanging the balls on the tree. Actually, Ella did the hanging and Alex kept pulling them off.

He also tried throwing them into the tree. That didn't work either.

But it all came out nicely in the end.

We have three smaller trees rather than one large one. We love it. And in case you were wondering, my IKEA obsession carries over into my Christmas decorations too. The balls on my tree? IKEA. My cool Christmas goat?

IKEA. My wrapping papers and bows? IKEA. Though I have to admit, our stockings?

So Wal-mart.