Breakfast with Santa

On Saturday, our church hosted a Breakfast with Santa event.  This was Josie's first real interaction with Santa.  We ate breakfast, made reindeer food (which Josie sampled--luckily, it was all edible), made crafts, and played games.  Most importantly, all the kids got a chance to sit with Santa and chat for a minute.  Josie wasn't scared at all.  She told him she wanted princess and Tinkerbell stuff.  

Santa's goody bag

Making Reindeer Food

Santa sticker craft

Christmas button craft

Josie and her friend Rachel

Christmas at our New House

Josie looking at an ornament of her first sonogram picture

Decorating the tree (which one can only do while wearing a neon green tule skirt)

All done!

Lane's first Christmas ornaments.  These are VERY fragile and have to sit in a bowl, rather than hang.

Lane's special tree of all his baby ornaments

Lights!

Tree of Thanks

We initiated a new Thanksgiving tradition this year, a Tree of Thanks.  Lane made fun of me for going into the back yard, picking up some sticks, putting them in a vase, tying a ribbon on it and calling it pretty.  He's right---probably no other time of the year could I do that and be right.  But that's what Josie and I did.  Once our "tree" was put together, I printed out slips of paper that said "I'm thankful for...".  Each day, we would all write down one thing we were thankful for and hang it on our tree.  Josie was REALLY into this!  She reminded me on days I forgot about it, and she wrote down her things by herself (as I told her what letters to write).  We will definitely continue this Thanksgiving tradition.  It was so easy and simple, but such a great way to make us daily think about just how much God has blessed us!

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving we were blessed to spend some time with my family in Gatlinburg, TN.   We got to spend a day in Cade's Cove, where I had my first black bear sighting.  I've been to Gatlinburg dozens of times, but this was the first wild bear I've ever seen.  It was eating under a tree out in an open field.  The traffic back-up was very exciting--especially when some morons starting walking out across the field towards it.  Luckily, we didn't see anyone get mauled.
The next day was Thanksgiving.  We spent the morning at the indoor water park at our resort (which Josie LOVED!!!).  Then more family came in from other resorts for our big Thanksgiving meal--my parents, Leah & Philip, Grandma & Grandpa, David & Gail, Michael & Mindy and all the kids that go with them!  It was a crowd and a tight squeeze!  While we were eating, we spotted ANOTHER bear--this time right off the balcony of our room!  Some people in the next building were feeding it from their balcony.  On Friday, Mom and Dad went with us to hike the Laurel Falls trail.  Josie loved seeing the beautiful water fall.  We stopped for a picnic lunch (in keeping with all Sims family picnics, it was cold and definitely sprinkling, almost raining) before heading home.
It was a really enjoyable trip--all 3 of us had a great time!
We are so blessed!!!

Cade's Cove

Our first black bear sighting

Josie's "bear" pancakes at the Pancake Pantry

Downtown Gatlinburg

Josie and cousin Lily

The bear outside our condo

Hiking to Laurel Falls

Great Smokey Mountains

Picnic in the cold

Our Beautiful Trees!

 Today on our way home from school, I pulled into the subdivision and thought "Oh, what pretty trees!  Wait a minute.....those are OUR trees!!!!!"
We've been waiting for weeks now for our trees to change color.  The neighbors' trees changed a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know why these are behind schedule, but it was worth the wait.  
God is so creative to come up with such beautiful Fall colors!  So pretty!!!