A White Christmas

This Christmas, we flew North to Pittsburgh to spend Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We really talked up the snow to Avery, and she could hardly wait to get from the airport to my Uncle Dwight's house to experience it. I bought an ebay snow suit, Meme sprung for the pink snow boots, and we borrowed a sled from my cousins Shea and Karl. We were officially ready to hit the backyard!

This Southern girl had a blast tasting the snow, touching the falling flakes, and most of all, sledding!

"More!"

But let's not forget....

...this Daddy supervision fail!

Girl's Night Out

Avery and I are fresh from a school night outing for dinner and a story, just us girls. Earlier this week, I discovered that our local library branch was hosting a "Polar Express Pajama Rama" this evening, and knew that Avery and I had to be there. Conveniently, the Polar Express Pajama Rama coincided with Chick-fil-A family night, so Avery was a very cheap dinner date. We even ran into Avery's school friend, Naomi, and her parents, so sat next to them. Avery was pretty unfazed by their presence as she gobbled up an entire nugget kids meal (with ketchup) and drank all her milk!

The Polar Express reading was enjoyable, and though Avery was a little unsure of the lights going off at first, she settled in with me to listen to the story. She thought the special sound effects were pretty neat, and enjoyed seeing the book's pages on the big projector screen. A couple of teens sitting nearby even giggled when she recognized Santa and exclaimed "Nanta Claus!"

After the reading was over, we did a craft together. Avery doesn't mess around when a glue stick is involved! We passed on the hot cocoa, but Avery did go for the cookies, then set about finding some new books to check-out and read. After perusing the library's entire board book selection, she chose two: "Go Dog. Go!" and "Curious George's ABCs." I opted for a more mature choice, the newly released "As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto."

On our way out, we made a stop to check out the library's dozens of decorated trees!

And last but not least, we took a self-portrait to commemorate our outing. Here's to a new holiday tradition at our local library!

"Nanta Claus"

We took Avery to see "Nanta Claus" this weekend. After a failed portrait session with Santa at school, I set my expectations low. When it was our turn to see Santa, Avery wasn't at all interested in sitting on his lap, but agreed to sit on mine while I sat next to Santa...as long as blue puppy could come, too. With these compromises, Avery indulged me with a tiny smile. It's not a perfect Santa photo, but I'll take it!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a very busy Thanksgiving full of good football, food, and family. On Thanksgiving Day, we waited for Meme and Pa to arrive while playing a little football in our front yard. Avery didn’t let a silly dress keep her from the pigskin action!

That evening, we were fortunate to share Thanksgiving dinner with some of my mom’s extended family. We really enjoyed seeing several relatives that we hadn’t seen in years, and Avery was the life of the party! I was more than happy to take home an empty dish of corn pudding as our hosts did the cooking. As for Avery, she wasn't into the delicious meal and dined on goldfish instead. Sigh.

Friday afternoon, two of Greg’s closest friends, Marco and Eric, arrived to join the fun. They kept Greg busy drinking beer and playing pool, so we left them to their own devices on Saturday and headed to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to take advantage of the beautiful weather. Avery had a big time running around the gardens and watching the miniature trains with Pa.

She wasn't so sure about Santa Claus, though.

Sunday, we left Avery in Meme’s care and headed to the Georgia Dome to watch the Packers take on the Falcons. We had a blast at the game despite the Packers 3-point loss. It was really a treat to be able to go to a game and leave Avery in such good hands.

Avery sure had a nice weekend with her grandparents, and can't wait to see them again at Christmas!