A lot of turkey and a hometown tree lighting....

What more can you ask for in Southern Maryland! We had a nice Thanksgiving. Of course I cooked a lot of food for three adults and a 3 yr old. lol. We are thankful for the time we get to spend with family. After we filled our bellies, we all played a bowling game on the Wii. Mom loved it and we laughed a lot.

The day after Thanksgiving there is a tree lighting/festival in Leonardtown, which includes Santa nonetheless. So after our turkey pot pie dinner, we bundled ourselves up for the cold to check out the festivities. We got there just in time to find a spot on the sidewalk to watch the parade of firetrucks along with Mr. McGruff and Sparky the fire dog (Caroline's favorite). Then Santa came by and helped light the tree in the center of the Leonardtown square. I'm glad I had my hot chocolate because it was SOOO cold. Needless to say, we walked around the square and headed home. We finished our evening with a slice of homemade cherry pie with whipped topping. YUMMY.

This weekend also starts the holiday season shopping frenzy. I only went to one store, got what I needed and headed home. It wasn't crowded either-I was thankful. Steve went to Best Buys-not the best idea. They were out of what he went after and the lines snaked around the store. He saw a friend of ours and she had been standing in line for 45 minutes (you go Jen!). Steve even said IF they had what he wanted he probably wouldn't of got it b/c the wait wasn't worth his time. Amen!

We also put up the christmas tree and got all the holiday decorations out. Caroline is so excited about the tree. She enjoys the lights and the train!

My favorite is 'candy popcorn'

Caroline tasted candy corn for the first time and that became her favorite and informed me she loves candy 'popcorn'...see the connection? lol.

At O-dark thirty Caroline wakes me up and says, 'mommy it's Halloween' and I replied yes, it is. She talked all day about dressing up as a princess (insert any princess name and she was happy, but Cinderella I think is the favorite). After dinner we got her all dressed up and went to a few houses of people we know. Caroline got to meet another 'Cinderella' and was in heaven. Then we ventured down to the local library for their 'not-so-scary' children's halloween party. I have to say it was pretty good. It started off with a few stories, songs, and games. Then the kids got to go around the library and get candy at different stations. They even got a book, pencils, and coupon for Chick-Fil-A (that's for mommy!). We met up with some friends and the girls had a ball at the library. Afterwards, we walked over to the fire station and the kids got more candy and got to check out the firetrucks. We were home by 8pm and Caroline was asleep by 8:30.

I'm not sure what my take is on this Halloween 'holiday'...basically it means nothing to me. In our house Caroline has the opportunity to dress up everyday and we seem to always have some kind of sugary treat stashed in the house. So to dedicate a day/night to say trick or treat seems useless. I will say that maybe this is due to my Halloweens as a kid...it wasn't a big deal really and I remember getting tired, my costume falling off, and ended up crying for some reason. So will Halloween become a yearly tradition in our family, don't know, but I bet we will continue to dress up as a princess and enjoy sugary treats for the next few weeks!

Happy Fall Y'all.