2nd (3rd) Birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in 7 days or less....

We had a whirlwind Thanksgiving week. We picked Jake's mom Diane up from the Austin airport on Saturday afternoon and didn't stop moving and shaking for the next week. On Sunday we had a nice pancake breakfast before Grandma and I hit the shopping. In just under 2 hours we completed all of our Christmas shopping. Amazing!

Monday was Baleigh's actual Birthday so we picked up the cake we had ordered the week before to have with dinner. She loved her princess cake and managed to get enough frosting on her to look a little like the cake herself.

Tuesday I had to work so everyone else spent time at the park and doing a little more shopping. We went out to dinner on Tuesday night to an Asian Buffet that we like here in town and the kids learned to use chopsticks- its amazing what kids can do in under and hour! After our international affair we drove out to BLORA to see the Nature In Lights show. We drove through the park looking at over 100 Christmas light displays - it was really beautiful and the kids enjoyed it so much.

Wednesday morning I got up and took the kids to my Brigade Turkey Bowl on post. That allowed Jake and Diane an opportunity to sleep in a little. That and Grandma wanted to do some of the Turkey day cooking so she did the day before things like the pumpkin pies and stuffing for the turkey. That afternoon we took the kids to see Tangled 3D. They didn't want to wear the glasses but still enjoyed the movie immensely.

 Thursday morning the kids and I got up early and stuffed the bird and finished up the rest of the side dishes. When Jake and Diane got up we were able to sit and relax until lunch time. Lunch was amazing. Diane shared two family recipes with me and I was so excited to learn how to make the holiday potato bread (that both Jake and I love) as well as her version of pumpkin pie....its just better than mine and such an easy recipe.

We all stuffed ourselves and then went into our respective food comas.

We had decided to celebrate Christmas on Friday with Grandma since we will be with the Nielsen family on actual Christmas. At 1:30 on Friday morning I headed out to do what little Black Friday shopping I wanted to do. I got to Kohl's and got in line (15th in line wasn't too shabby) for their 3 AM opening. I had planned out my shopping strategy earlier in the week so that I could be done with shopping and back in bed before 4AM. I got in snatched up my treasures and was checked out before 3:18 AM!

At 6AM Thor and Baleigh both popped awake and were ready to see what Santa had brought. They got games (board games are the new greatest thing lately), and each got a digital camera (thank you Kohl's black friday sale- I saved $110 just on those), and several new outfits. Then we sat them both down and had them close their eyes while Jake brought in the holy grail of Christmas presents. Thor got a bike and Baleigh got a motorized Motorcycle (Hot pink!). I am going to try and upload the video of their reaction to it - it was priceless! I think that Grandma was just as excited about her new Kindle as the kids were about their bikes. lol It was really nice to finally get her something that she truly wanted.

Saturday morning we all piled in the car at 5:30 AM to take Diane back to the airport. Baleigh was so upset when she got out to leave- She kept saying "I'm gonna miss grandma!" - poor kid.

Overall it was  a great week- now we need to start prepping for the Christmas in 4 weeks. So excited!