Here comes Santa Claus!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Ours was really nice. We went to eat Thanksgiving dinner at the Campbell House with Dad and Pat. Then, we've spent the rest of the weekend decorating for Christmas. As you know, that's quite an endeavor at our house!

Last year, we took Elizabeth to see Santa Claus on the day after Thanksgiving, and it was perfect - nobody else was going to see Santa on that day, and we quickly snuck in and out of Turfland Mall, mainly because the mall is half vacant and does not get the crazy holiday shoppers. In fact, it went so well, we figured we'd found a holiday tradition that needed to stick around. So, this year, we again dressed Elizabeth up on the day after Thanksgiving with promises of seeing Santa. She was really excited. She practiced all morning and was ready to tell Santa that she had been a good girl and wanted "a dollhouse and two leaves" (where the leaves came from or why she wanted them, I haven't a clue) for Christmas. So, David, Elizabeth, and I piled in the car and drove to Turfland Mall, ready for our family tradition....only, there was NO SANTA there. Apparently, Turfland Mall is now in such a state of decline that it doesn't even rate a Santa Claus. Now, that is sad. Even sadder was the sweet little girl who was dressed up in her fancy clothes and asking to see Santa. So, against all better judgement, we told her that Santa had gone to the other mall, and we went to Fayette Mall to find him. And find him we did - amidst the 100,000 other shopping-crazed folks who had ventured out for shopping marathons on Black Friday. My claustrophobic brain just shudders even recalling it. We finally made it into the mall parking lot - which was designed to house about 99,800 fewer cars than were in it - and even found a miraculous parking spot - miracle of miracles! Then, we quickly threw her in the stroller, dashed through the crowds, and walked straight in to see Santa. As planned, there was absolutely nobody else there to see him (who else is crazy enough to go to see Santa on Black Friday?). So, after a quick visit with Santa - in which Elizabeth was practically mute and very timid, but at least not crying this year - we dashed back to the car and drove out of the crowds as quickly as we could. Mission accomplished, and Elizabeth was very happy that she got to see Santa. Of course, we then had to explain to her that her dollhouse was not waiting for her at home. She was a little confused that she actually had to wait until Christmas to get it.

Here's the annual torture photo:



It actually looks pretty similar to last year's, don't you think?




We also got most of our Christmas decorations up, both inside and outside. It's been a very busy couple of days! Of course, believe it or not, even I thought the exterior lights were a bit much after the first night, so I did tone them down a little bit. Not that the rest of you (aka Aunt Amy, the grinch) would think so, I'm sure!

More family fun

We had a special treat this week. Aunt Erin thought Uncle Brad was going to have to go out of town for the entire week for work, so she arranged to come to Lexington with the kids, and Aunt Amy decided to fly in and see everybody also. It turned out that Uncle Brad's trip was cancelled, but we still enjoyed seeing everyone!

Here are some pictures from rare moments when both of the girls were actually getting along (sharing was definitely a struggle for them this week):





Elizabeth really loved seeing Baby Bridger again. She used every opportunity she had to hold him, hug him, and kiss him.



She even tried to get him involved in the girls' games. Here he is participating in a tea party:



And, she really like it when Brooke went to Bible Study with Aunt Erin, and she got to take care of Bridger all by herself!



Here she is playing on the floor with him:



And reading a book to him:



As you can see, the little cutie was mesmerized by her:



We figure she'll remain infatuated with him until he's old enough to want to play with her toys. Then, hopefully, she'll be old enough to share them a little better with both him and Brooke!

Pure chaos

Last night, we experienced the true definition of the word "chaos" when we offered to babysit for some church friends. As parents of 5 kids under the age of 8, they truly needed a night out. So, we let them take advantage of a Parents Night that was being offered at church for kids age 4 and up by offering to sit for their almost 3-year-old son and 1-1/2 year old twin girls at the same time. Their little ones were great - they had a lot of fun trying out all the new toys at our house.





Elizabeth struggled with sharing her toys at first, but she got a lot better by the end of the night and enjoyed showing the "babies" how to be a "big girl." Of course, she took every opportunity she had to steal some of her newly remembered toys away and play with them all by herself:



And, the most hilarious point of the evening (at least in my opinion) was seeing David's face after he took their just-potty-trained boy in to use the bathroom - then had to clean the entire room afterwards. I think he's very glad he has a girl now - they're a lot less messy!

We were feeling pretty proud of ourselves for handling all of the kids for a few hours, until we realized our friends deal with that chaos all the time, every single day - with 2 more older kids added into the equation! I think we'll need to volunteer to help them out again very soon.

Sunflower and butterfly

Here is a picture that I took while we were visiting Uncle Shuck's Corn Maze. You'll have to open the picture and view it full screen to really appriciate the beauty of this little butterfly. If it is getting cold where you are, I hope this warms you up a little.

The Creation Museum - can we get a do-over?

This morning, our family went with a group from our church to the Creation Museum. If you're not familiar with this place, you probably don't live near Kentucky, because it caused quite a stir around here when it opened this year. It is a museum created by the Answers in Genesis folks, supposedly to provide scientific evidence of God's Creation, including disproving the theory of evolution.

David and I were excited about going. We've read and seen a lot of information from this group that is well-researched, well-presented and founded on solid scientific evidence. There is a lot of exciting and interesting information out there to support everything they included in the museum. However, we were very disappointed in the museum itself. We both felt that it was much less of a "museum" instead of a fancy display of animatronic dinosaurs and Adam and Eve mannequins. The main problem was that they didn't include the details of the scientific data - which is out there and readily known by them. Instead, they focused on showy pictures and displays and left out the factual information that could have proved their point. Because of the way it was presented, without any of the details and facts I was expecting, I think that if I had come to the museum as a non-believer, I would have left as one. That is a real tragedy, because I truly believe the wonder of God's creation is the strongest testimony to His power and, if presented in the proper format, it would be difficult to deny His role in creation. Not to mention the fact that the museum was horribly over-crowded and not laid out very well, which made you inclined to skip large portions of it. So, my final grade is an "A" for a great idea and true potential, but a "D-" for implementation.

But, we did have a good time looking at the cool stuff - similar to as if we had ridden through "It's a Small World" at DisneyWorld. Here are some pics from the excursion: