thanksgiving part two/thanksmas

my mom, brian, oakley and i were thankful we had time to make a quick trip to georgia over thanksgiving weekend.  it was great to see a lot of our family and we enjoyed quality time with my grandparents.  it was really special this time because oakley totally remembered my grandparents from this summer.  he was so excited to go down and visit--talked about it all the time for days before and after the trip.  my grandparents were thrilled that he remembered them!  he actually would leave the room with them, which he has never had the courage to do before.  it was really sweet.

cynthia (my mom's sis-in-law) and randy (mom's brother) hosted thanksgiving at their house.  it was incredible food.  the stuffing made from scratch, rotisserie turkey and fried turkey, sweet potato and bean casseroles, ham, rolls, yum.  it was amazing!  we were so thankful to be included in their thanksgiving celebration.  oakley was the only child there, so he had quite an audience.  of course, he loved it and was such a good boy.  the weather was wonderful (in the 70's) and i did not want to come home to weather in the 40's.  (although, i can't complain much, it's the end of december and in the 50's!)

here are some pictures from our trip.

listening to music on mommy's ipod.  he looks so old to me here. :(

running down the driveway.  did this for about 30 min.  notice my mom's freaked out look on her face.  we were so afraid he was going to bite it.  he never did, thank goodness!

beautiful view of the lake from their backyard.  breathtaking!

can't go without grandpa's homemade hushpuppies and fish!

nobody beats his hushpuppies.  ah-mazing!

jumping around.  stole gramma's socks and put them on.

silly gramma!  funny how i'm seeing how much my mom resembles my grandma as i get older.

we were assigned the task of bringing the tree up from the basement and decorating it.  i think it's just getting to be too much for my grandparents now.  we had so much fun doing it!  and their tree was pretty cool (oakley thought) because if you press the button on the stand, it made the tree rotate.  the first picture is o pressing the button over and over and then me and oakley stringing the tree with beads.  oakley loved playing with the nutcrackers, too. it was fun!

the finished product.  i think it turned out nice!

helping "mo"  make blueberry crisp.  YUM!

throwing acorns into the "pond", as oakley called it.

nice follow-thru!

the following weekend, we had "thanksmas" with my dad and sisters.  we had everyone over to our house and ate homemade potato soup, sausage balls (my dad's best creation!), and a few other appetizers.  we spent good quality time as a family and exchanged a few gifts.  it was really good to get together with everyone because it had been a while since our last gathering.  my dad got oakley a kindle fire for christmas, which brian and i are benefiting from, too.  it's a neat little gadget.  oakley LOVES the matching game on it.  i'm excited to download some books for our upcoming road trip.  i don't know why, but i never pulled out my camera for this occasion.  bummer!  i guess i was enjoying the time i didn't even think to get the camera out.