So much fun!!!

There is just nothing better than being a grandparent! I NEVER thought I'd be saying that! We had so much fun with Christian while he was here. And we miss him immensely now that he's gone back to his new house! I always seem to post the pictures in reverse order ... but you can still get the idea of our last weekend! Our neighbor (Mike - the hardware store contact) took us to his family tree farm and let us pick out the most magnificent live Christmas tree I've ever seen! We walked up a little hill (yeah, right - there are NO little hills around here!) and there it was, the first one Paul and I laid eyes on! As always, I am in awe of Mother Nature's gifts to us. As we went around the hill, we noticed the absolutely breath taking scenery. It's so beatufiul, there are not words to describe it. As Paul says, "look where we live!". Most assuredly I am speechless and overwhelmed at the generosity of Mike and his family. He says "Santy Claus done come and y'all just enjoy that". Trust me on that, we certainly will! Christian did ask "why does he talk like that?". Hmmm ... anyway .... then we went to see Santa Claus in Valle Crucis ... and boy did he have a big fat country accent! Christian had never befriended Santa Claus in the physical sense before, and he was quite brave! He walked right up, got up on his knee and proceeded to tell him he'd really like to have a new Cars movie and a new car. So, his theme for Santa Claus is cars ... however, he keeps telling us it's Thomas the Tank! The pics of Christian beside our 9 foot tall GORGEOUS tree captured his 4 x 4's in his hands, so there is a definite transportation thing going on in his little heart! And I'm sure Santa will figure it all out! After the Santa Claus visit we watched the Banner Elk Christmas parade. Oh my! What a great "small town" story! It was lead by the firetruck and rescue squad, as well as the sheriff and several snow plows! Then the General Lee (you know, Dukes of Hazard, orange "well I wish I was in the land of cotton" horn, confederate flag on the roof car) came down the street ... just like you'd expect. There were 2 high school marching bands and some other vehicles representing the mayor and some rich people who build cabins and condos! They all threw candy for Christian because he was so bright eyed and cute!!! So now we have 10 pounds (more or less) of parade candy sitting here for all to enjoy! After the parade we came home, introduced Christian to the tradition of hot chocolate and decorated our new tree ... or at the least the bottom third! We ran out of lights, so Paul Paul and Christian had to go get some more for us to finish! But the tree was decorated in time for Christian's mom and dad when they came Sunday night to pick him up! He was such a happy little fella to see his parents. Grandparents are a lot of fun, but moms and dads are first, and a perfect example of that was when the front door opened and mommy was standing there! So sweet!!!!

Now that Christian has gone home, it's very quiet here. Even the cats are quiet! We're expecting snow tomorrow, so we're just trying to enjoy the sunshine today! It's in the 50s now ... but supposed to be around 15 tonight! So all you Floridians think warm thoughts for us snowbunnies up here! I'm sure the snowboarders are going to be happy ~ they've waited a very long time for the white stuff to show up!!! We're looking forward to a weekend filled with household accomplishments and Saturday night we're going to see the local Nutcracker, presented by the dance studio where Paul's boss's (Dirk) daughter (Zoe) takes dance. They will be performing at the auditorium at ASU in Boone. And Zoe will be one of the angels, so we're very excited about the show! AND, we'll get to see the city again too! And it's supposed to be back up into the 20s by then! So, things are looking up! :-) Best to all! Paul & Cheri