Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to All! It's been another wonderful holiday here in Nashville. My parents and Jenni came up to celebrate and we have had a few wonderful days with them. Matt and I worked today but we were both home for the Christmas Eve celebration yesterday and had a blast unwrapping presents with the kids.

We also had a fun time getting ready for Christmas this year. The kids have loved every minute of it and have been in awe of all the pre-Christmas on-goings.

Lucas raced to open a door every morning of his not one, but three calendars. His favorite was the Kinder Chocolate calendar my grandmother sent him from Germany. Kindereggs behind doors and getting to eat them before breakfast, can't beat that.

Eli, the Christmas Elf, made his first appearance at our house this year. Every night he left us to head back to the North Pole and tell Santa whether we've been naughty or nice around here. He reappeared somewhere else every morning and Lucas had fun tracking him down every day.

And we of course got our Christmas tree.

And decorated it. Winter hats required.

Soon all the lights were on.

 And the ornaments too.

The season brought a few more holiday treats. We watched Jenni dance as the Mouse Queen in the Nutcracker.

And posed with the Nutcracker at the Opryland Hotel.

And watched a special Holiday Shrek show.

Pictures from our Christmas celebration to come soon! Merry Christmas and Frohe Weihnachten from all of us! We hope yours has been as blessed as ours.

Turkey Day

We got to spend Thanksgiving Day with my family this year (we enjoyed my mother-in-law's turkey a few days later). And a wonderful day it was. I am very thankful to have gotten to spend the day with my whole sweet bunch. 

Morning Eyes:

To get us all out of the house, we took an outing to Moss Rock, the perfect rock, river, and woods playground for a then soon-to-be four year old.

Little sis had a fun time too. 

And so did the rest of us:

 

Love my two:

And love my three:

Mountain Weekend Getaway

In November we got the chance to head out of town for a weekend getaway with some dear friends of ours (and without the kiddos!) Don't get me wrong, I adore my kids, but a weekend away to relax, focus on us, and most importantly spend time with our friends was wonderful.

We met Kathleen and David in Black Mountain, NC, near Asheville, and spent the weekend hiking, relaxing, and exploring Asheville. Thanks to Kathleen we had the cutest little cabin equipped with fireplace and all and were able to make ourselves right at home. 

The weather was gorgeous and we did what we could to get outside and explore the area.

We climbed:

We stopped for lots of photo opps (it was much harder to take this self-timed photo than it looks):

  We pretended to have horses:

We found a little trickle of a waterfall:

  And a bigger one:

 We chased away bears:

 And enjoyed the views:

 After all that hiking we were hungry and enjoyed a yummy lunch.

Green shirt day

And later wine at The Grove Park Inn.

And even later a wonderful breakfast at Morning Glory

Grey Shirt Day

And learned that blueberry stuffed French Toast is amazing.

 We'll be back!