We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We had Thanksgiving dinner with our family at Jim's parents house. The boys were so excited to get to see all of their cousins!
The kid table! I think it may be the first year without any highchairs!
The cousins played all afternoon! The weather was wonderful!
Pops and GoGo still have all the Big Wheels and bikes from when Jim and his siblings were little. All the cousins found one and rode all around the driveway!
The girls made a big leaf pile and everyone took turns jumping into it. By the time I got some pictures, there was not much of the leaf pile left. ;)
We are very blessed this Thanksgiving! Jim took off work the day after Thanksgiving for the first time in almost 15 years! We had orginally planned to attend the Razorback vs. LSU football game, but with the disappointing season, we decided to stay home and were so glad we did. We got to pick out our Christmas tree as a family this year! Usually that's something I do on my own with Christian.
Then we put up all our Christmas decorations and watched the football game from the coziness of our home. I also cooked our own Thanksgiving dinner that day to enjoy Friday evening.
Christian set the table all on his own. He even made placecards for us!
So cute!
We surprised the boys with a surprise trip to Branson the following day! I purchased tickets to ride the Polar Express train. They were SO excited!
We had a nice quiet drive to Branson (both boys slept on the way there and on the way back)!
We stayed at the Hilton at Branson Landing!
The weather turned really cold that day so we bundled up and watched the fire and light show for just a few minutes that evening.
We had dinner that night at Joe's Crab Shack and it was yummy. Then we went back to our hotel and had the boys get in the jammies for the train ride. They encourage kids to wear pajamas just like on the Polar Express movie. We picked the PERFECT hotel to stay at since it was right on the Branson Landing boardwalk and across the street from the train depot. We did not have to drive anywhere!
Aboard the Polar Express Train!
Andrew was busy telling me everything that made him excited about the train ride!
He loved having hot chocolate out of a big boy mug!
Christian really loved the train ride too. Both boys picked out toy trains at the gift shop and played with them as we road along. The train passed by the North Pole and we saw Santa's elves working away! The train also took us through the Festival of Lights twice! We saw the line of cars just waiting to get in and it was over a mile long! We were so blessed to sit back and relax on the train and get to see the lights without the traffic!
Andrew had the sweetest smile when he saw Santa Claus!
He jumped into the aisle and starting telling Santa how much he loves his school, his friends and even what he dressed up as for Halloween. It was so funny!
The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed to Big Cedar Lodge to enjoy their Sunday brunch.
This is the gingerbread house at the Big Cedar Lodge. AMAZING!
The weather warmed up ALOT that morning and the boys enjoyed some outdoor playtime on the lodge's property. It was so beautiful!
We had a blessed Thanksgiving with our family and a wonderful weekend in Branson!
