Thanksgiving and Photos with Santa

Okay I know that I just posted Halloween pictures but I am trying to catch-up:) We had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. John was on call so we had to stay in the Jackson area. That meant no traveling home to see family. At first we were a little disappointed but we decided to make our own special day. I wish I would have taken pictures but the thought did not cross my mind until after the day was over. We chose to serve meals with a downtown church. But since they did not need help serving the meal, we helped prepare beforehand. I was not sure how much help a fellow with a constant buzzing pager and a mom with a two year old would be but we were determined to do something special on Thanksgiving day. We had a great time cleaning tables, tearing up turkeys into servable portions and wrapping up plastic silverware in napkins. When the crew showed up to serve lunch and the craziness began (we found ourselves more in the way than helping), we excused ourselves to have our own lunch of BLTs.

The weekend continued to be a lot of fun. John even on call as an Allergy/Immunology fellow does not have to spend the nights at the hospital so though the pager goes off John is at home with Grantham and me. After three days of rain, we decided to brave the crazy shoppers and go to Bass Pro shop Outdoor World. We had heard that you could get free Santa pictures and there were holiday activities for kids. We brought a small sack lunch and had a picnic in the back of the mini van (it was raining). Then we explored the store. They had a great set-up for Santa and we were very happy with the pictures we were able to get. If you have a Bass Pro Shop near you, this was so much better than the mall Santa's and the crazy lines that go with it. Don't forget to bring your own camera- you get what you pay for (and these pictures were free). Hope you like the pictures we took with our camera:

Waiting to see Santa

A little Santa Dance

Helping the Elves

Playing with snow

A little more dancing

Not so sure about this Santa character (Santa was so patient while we convinced Grantham to sit in his lap)

Sitting in Santa's Chair

Trying Santa's milk and cookies

Halloween- Better Late than Never :)

I think that is going to be my new life moto "better late than never." I know that many of you who are stay-at-home moms feel the same way. Before I stayed at home, I could get an endless amount of "work" done. But now I am happy if Grantham and I are dressed and the kitchen table has been cleaned off from the last meal:) I have been attending a group called Mom to Mom and so far I love it. It puts a smile on my face each month when one of the moms says something about the endless pile of laundary that needs to be done or never getting "the check list" completed. Last month we talked about things we were thankful for both in the past and at that very moment: one mom said that she was thankful for someplace to be other than home so she had an excuse not to attempt the huge pile of laundary. Don't you have a smile on your face too! In this group we talk a lot about the myths and frustrations we allow the devil to plant within us. I am trying to grasp hold of the idea that each day is God's NOT mine so my check list is just that a check list and not a "I will kill myself and anyone else who gets in the way of me completing my list" list. So right now there is blue tape all over the baseboards of my kitchen (even after 2 weeks) and the face plate for the light switches in the bathroom are still not on the wall (we have lived here for over four months now) because I have not found the time to complete all the painting jobs on my check list. But I have enjoyed having a few friends over, Grantham has mostly stopped hitting, I have been to two stamping/scrapbooking activities and we have had the opportunity to serve as a family, I believe God's list is so much more fulfilling than mine. I pray that I can look back on this blog and remember on the days that I am at my wits end because the list has not been checked off that God has so much greater a plan than we could imagen for our lives.

Okay I have gotten a little off task for this blog post, but going with the theme "better late than never." Here are some fun pictures of Grantham at Halloween. It was his first year to Trick-or-Treat and although we had a terribly pathetic turnout (only fifteen pieces of candy collected) Grantham had a wonderful time. (I ended up being thankful for the lack of candy in the end-after a few days there was no more candy to beg for!) Are you seeing that God's plan is always better than ours? Why do we so easily forget that lesson? Anyway we were in Indiana for Halloween so Grantham got to Trick-or-treat with his cousins. Enjoy the photos!

Grantham loved telling everyone he was going to be a pirate "Ahrrr, Ahoy there matie!"

It wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't all dress up. "Ahrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

Our first stop . . . we learned to take turns ringing the doorbell. Who knew it was so much fun?

How sweet; it makes me want to have a dozen;)

The whole crew