Pre-Christmas Pictures

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas too. We sure did. But we'll discuss that later. Right now we're way behind on pictures and obviously have a lot of new ones to share from the Reynolds' Christmas Vacation but I haven't even downloaded those from the camera yet.

These first few were taken the weekend after Thanksgiving when we drove out to a tree farm to get our Christmas tree (NOT holiday tree!).


It isn't quite the same as driving up in the mountains and gasping for air as we hike up and down the hillsides. Instead, we could have driven a Civic out to this place. When I refused their offer to cut the tree for me, we were given a saw and a measuring stick and told to have at it. This is the tree we picked.

After cutting the tree, Cade wanted to help me drag it back to the truck. Apparently, this behavior is exceedingly rare around here as they all acted surprised that I didn't have them get it for me. They even insisted on helping me load it! Sheesh. You'd think we picked out Griswold-size tree. Anyway, the people were super friendly, they offered free hot apple cider and Santa Claus was even on hand to talk to the kids. Cade like Santa because he kept his distance and didn't invade Cade's personal space.

On the way home, we stopped at a city park that advertised a huge light display and a train ride around the park. Well, it sounded really cool. It was actually pretty neat but half of the lights weren't turned on and the train wasn't running. In this shot, we're waiting for the sun to set so the kids passed time by quacking at the ducks and playing on the playground.



I know this blurry but I was trying to get a quick picture of Cameron and Cade holding hands.

We hung around after dark because the city also advertised a light show with the water fountains. We waited and waited and when it did start we were more than a little disappointed. It wasn't much of a show at all and was hard to distinguish from the normal operation of the fountains. Oh well. We had a nice evening together.



Dana and the boys decorating our tree the following evening. Cameron may be shirtless but at least he's not running around in his underwear.



They're all smiling and not making funny faces!!! If you look at our tree, you'll notice the top half is heavy on ornaments because all 3 boys wanted to use the step stool as much as possible. Quite the change from a few years ago when they were short and all the ornaments were within 3 feet of the bottom.



Christmas cookies!!!



I like this picture of me and my littlest buddy.

And finally, we had a snow day here in Athens! Not much snow and it wouldn't pack but it was still fun to play in.

Cameron

And Cade. No pictures of Kevin because he took off to play with some friends that live near here.

Marshall Space Flight Center had a tree lighting ceremony in early December so I took Dana and the boys to see it (and to get free cookies and hot chocolate). Santa showed up on a (Kawasaki) mule instead of a reindeer and the kids from the on-site daycare were on hand to sing some Christmas songs. Cameron and Cade even got their pictures with Santa for free! That's what I'm talking about! Kevin thought he was too old to get a picture with ol' St. Nick.

We took the boys to see Santa at the mall too. After waiting in a relatively short line, Cameron got up on Santa's lap and turned into Ralphie from "A Christmas Story". He went completely blank and couldn't remember what to tell Santa to bring him for Christmas. Cade sat on Santa's lap too. He later told us that he didn't think that was the real Santa because his hair was too short (it was real) and the Santa we saw where I work was also not the real one but he thought the one at the tree farm was the real deal because he was nice and didn't bother Cade.

And finally, I'll leave with this shot we took on the way back from the tree farm. Safety is obviously very important to this guy. Notice he took the extra precaution of tying the front end to the tree in case it falls off the 2x4s. Alabama engineering at its best!