The Fine Arts

Tonight we took the kids over to the Valentine Theatre to see the Nutcracker. I love that place, it's so old and beautiful. The kids actually did really well - stayed seated for almost all of the show. We had seats in the first row of the balcony, which were good seats. I'd pick those seats again.

After the show we went over to Mutz for dinner. Mutz is another old historical place, so it was a little "tour" of downtown Toledo. It was also funny because when we got there, we were the only people at the restaurant! But it was nice and cozy so we stayed for some food and tried to the turn the kids into pool sharks!

They had a lot of fun playing pool - especially Zachary!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

As soon as the turkey is cleared away, it's time to deck the halls! The kids have been a huge help this year. They practically ripped the boxes open and put up all of the decorations.



I loved that the kids stopped the decorating to read the Christmas books that we had tucked inside the boxes.

When the tree "skirt" came out, they had to try it on for size.

When the tree skirt was put down, the kids ran around and around in circles, chasing each other.

Zack got the honorary role of the tree assembler. Up it went!

I got to string the lights around, but after that I was only allowed to supervise. No one seemed to care about my decorating rules of putting the bulbs on the outside and inside of the branches, to make it seem "fuller" :)

Finally, the bow was put on the tree and it was ready for another season. Shortly after that, the first bulb was knocked down and broken by those naughty kitties!!

Willford Turkey Trot

In order to burn off some calories from our Thanksgiving feast, I decided to head out for a family run. Sydney was up to the challenge, but Zachary wasn't very interested. Unfortunately Alan couldn't join us because he is still letting his foot injury heel - so it was just us chicks this year. Next year, hopefully we'll all be running! Sydney did a great job and made it all the way around the neighborhood with me - not running the whole time, but it was definately a great start :)

Thanksgiving

Hey there Pilgrims! It's Turkey Day!!

This year I decided to go all out and create a culinary masterpiece! I put herbed butter under the skin of this bird - and stuff it with fresh herbs. It rested on a bed of celery and carrots. Yum! Well, it did turn out pretty good, although turkey really isn't one of my favorite foods. I'll eat it, but large quantities of it just isn't very appealing to me. Not sure if I'll do this again next year, but it was a fun challenge to make something this "fancy"!

Grandma & Grandpa came over and we celebrated out holiday feast with many nutrious and delicious foods :)

The placecards looked a lot like those awesome turkeys we made.

Yeah me!!