Thanksgiving and a tree hunt

We had a fun Thanksgiving weekend spending time at both Grandma Webb's and Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt's houses.  We started the long weekend at Grandma Webb's on Thanksgiving Day.  Uncle Josh, Uncle Mark, Mark's new girlfriend Cathy and her son, Max, Grandpa Mike, and the Keech family were all there helping us celebrate. 

The grownups ate a ton of food, played some cards, and watched a lot of football.  Mia drank some bottles, ate some crackers and puffs, watched us play cards, and crawled all over the place.  Carter ate a tiny bit of food, hid some cards, and did not watch any football.  Instead, Carter and Max, age 5, played together in Grandma's basement.  The boys got along fantastically.  Grandma Webb's basement has a lot of open space and (per Grandma) nothing for a 3 and 5 year old to damage, so they got free rein of the basement.  Cathy and I would peek down at the boys every so often and they were always playing very well and having a blast.  Grandma proclaimed several times that there was "absolutely nothing they could hurt" down there...but of course they found some things to get into.  Including dumping water on the python snake (it's real!) that Grandma Webb houses for the time being for Josh.  I'm no snake advocate, but I think that thing was slightly tortured by the boys.  By the end of the day, the basement looked like what I picture Toys R Us to look like after their Black Friday sale.  Toys everywhere.  But both boys helped pick up everything and we definitely had a tired kid when we got home.

Friday we woke up and headed off the Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt's house for their annual Christmas tree hunt.  We brought our wagon and trekked around the tree farm until we found the perfect tree.  Carter loved helping Daddy and Grandpa use the saw and drag the tree back to the car.  After enjoying some hot chocolate and pumpkin bread, we headed back to their house to put up the tree and have some lunch.

Friday evening Dave played in the annual East Kentwood alumni hockey game.  Dave was on the "old timers" team, who lost by only one point, and the kids and I were able to watch about 2 periods of the game.  Carter loved trying to pick out Dave when he was on the ice.  He also loved jumping around in the bleachers and general non-attentive 3 year old activities.  Hence the 2 period limit for us.  Dave hopes to get Carter out on the ice this winter so he can learn to skate.

Saturday and Sunday we lounged around the house and put up our Christmas tree.  Carter had a lot of fun decorating this year.  We also got out his beloved "singing snowmen" and other various characters that play Christmas tunes and dance around.  Mia seems to love the snowmen just as much as Carter, so Dave and I are already wishing those things were back in the box!  Tis the season.