completely irrelevant because I waited so long

I figured since we're halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas, about 2 weeks after Turkey Day and 2 weeks before Christmas, I'd talk a little about our Thanksgiving. It's just for memories sake, but we did have a wonderful holiday, so it's worth remembering.

Starting the Saturday before Thanksgiving, we were able to celebrate the 5th birthday of my college roommate's little boy. I still get tickled we are able to do things like that since moving to Texas! It was a super hero party. My girls were less than enthused about the theme, but they had fun anyway.

We left the party and headed to Rainforest Cafe to meet Holly. That was a first for me! I'd never thought I'd really meet someone I met online :) But, she was just as real in real life as she is on her blog. She has a precious family that includes 4 fun kids and her Chris. (I just love that she always calls him "My Chris" on her blog.) Thanks for the meeting, Smith family!

The girls didn't have school the week of Thanksgiving. We stayed busy on Monday, ate lunch with my parents and grandparents on Tuesday and celebrated Bryan's birthday on Wednesday. Thursday morning we got up and dressed the kids in their Aggie overalls (While we didn't really believe the Aggies would end up victorious, you won't catch us allowing our kids to be 2 Percenters (That's just Aggie lingo basically meaning Fair Weathered Fan (Appropriate as it would be for an Aggie joke, I must tell you I didn't learn to use paranthesis inside paranthesis inside parenthesis while earning my degree with an emphasis in English at A&M!))). We ate with my mom's side of the family at Black-Eyed Pea for lunch. The best part was seeing everyone. Levi got to meet some family for the first time and bonded with his great uncle.

After lunch, we hung out at my parents' house.

My kids were spoiled by grandparents and even got to spend a little time with my grandparents, Meme and Papa, aka Mean and Rotten.

My grandfather would have been perfect in the movie Grumpy, Old Men, except it's all an act. He likes to aggravate people and likes being aggravated even more. Addison is too sweet for this sort of game. She just smiles and doesn't usually retaliate. Libby is the perfect candidate. And, so Mean and Rotten and Libby Lu banter back and forth. He tells her she is mean and rotten, Meme always has to interject, "No she's not! She's sweet and precious!", and Libby claims that Papa is the original Mean and Rotten! This mean and rotten/sweet and precious talk has been going on since their first grandchild (me) was a little one. Libby has taken it to a new level, though, with actually nicknaming Papa "Mean and Rotten". On the way to her Christmas program yesterday, I told her Poppa wouldn't be able to make it because he had to go out of town for work. She asked, "Poppa or Mean and Rotten?" I clarified and she said, "Good! Don't let Mean and Rotten come to my preschool. My teachers will be scared of him and my friends will be scared of him and I will have to say, 'Don't be scared. It's just Mean and Rotten!'" The funny thing is, she always talks about him and tries to think of ways to aggravate him the next time she'll see him.

This is where the pictures end because I left my camera at my mom's house on Thanksgiving. I'm hoping I can get my hands on some pictures that were taken Friday. We drove to Tyler to spend the day with Bryan's mom's family. All of Meme's (Bryan's grandmother) daughters and their kids were there. Levi got to meet more people and tons of pictures were taken. We even got to meet Makenzie for the first time!

On Saturday, we were able to celebrate Gracie's 1st Birthday! Again, I was tickled that we could be there. The girls had a blast playing with Cade on the pool table. And Addi was in awe of the diamonds that lined the walkway to the house. They really were Christmas lights, but why ruin the magicical images a 6 year old has :)

It was a wonderful week and a great beginning to the holiday season for us. We are truly blessed to live so near many friends and family.