December 20

I'm now a day behind with my December Photo Project, but we did two major things yesterday. Mr. Morgan had his third and final bronchial thermoplasty. He was much more cognitively aware after this procedure than the other two, so the afternoon was restful for him and productive for me. Then we spent the evening packing and getting ready for our Christmas traveling. For the most part, the boys are good travelers: They need snacks, toys, and blankets. Mr. Morgan just needs his earplugs.

Thanksgiving Week at the Farm

Since all the kids were out of school for the full week of Thanksgiving, we loaded up Monday morning headed for the farm. We had a delightful week of family, friends, and fun, and the boys didn't even notice that they never got in the car to leave the farm the whole week. I forgot my camera (eek!), so I've collected pictures from my phone, Mr. Morgan's phone, and our friend Bonnie's super-sweet camera with a great lens. Thanks, Bonnie, for the great family shots!

Every day the boys played in the leaves: They played by themselves, with friends, with Mr. Morgan, with Uncle Travis--all the time. Jumping into the big pile was great fun as was being thrown into the big pile.

Collier would disappear into the pile, but he loved every minute of it.

During Aunt Linda and Uncle Billy's visit, the boys enjoyed lots of leaf-time especially when they got to bury Uncle Billy. He's such a good sport! Linda snapped this sweet picture of Collier.

Claire started all the fun by raking the big pile of leaves in the front yard.

Claire spent several afternoons riding with Susan, Mimi and Pops's neighbor with all the horses. This time Claire got to ride by herself; she was totally excited!

As has become Dad's tradition, he made a big pot of Brunswick stew the day after Thanksgiving.

We were so happy to have the newly engaged couple Travis and Cheri with us at Thanksgiving. We talked a lot about wedding plans!

Mom's table was beautiful and stretched to its limit with all 12 of us around it for the Thanksgiving meal.

We finished our Thanksgiving meal with delicious desserts, and Collier dug right into his piece.

One day after naps, Mimi and Hamilton stole a few moments of quiet together reading Mimi's latest magazine.

Since Billy and Linda wouldn't be coming back at Christmas, the kids enjoyed opening their gifts over the Thanksgiving week. Thomas the train was a big hit.

On Friday we did some skeet shooting on the farm. Though I was not good at shooting skeet, I did feel very Garden & Gun which was cool.

Our dear family friends the Trammells came for some afternoon shooting and a laid-back party. Though there were five kids under four running around everywhere, the noise and mayhem was manageable with adults outnumbering little ones 3:1. Using Bonnie's great camera and lens, I captured a sweet picture of the whole Trammell clan. It's so fun to get everyone together, especially with our growing families. But with all of us spread out from Nashville to Charleston, it doesn't happen often enough.

On one of their many walks, the boys enjoyed some time playing on Pops's trailers.

Our last morning on the farm, we spent some time picking out the church's tree and our family's tree. Both made it back to Charleston safely, and the Leyland Cypress at the church, I think, is the prettiest tree we've ever had there.

Mom's birthday always gets lumped in with Thanksgiving, so we celebrated Saturday morning at breakfast before we headed back to Charleston. We invited Grandma over, too, and I cooked a special breakfast giving Mom the morning off.

Mountain Weekend

Our weekend in the mountains gave us our first taste of winter: We enjoyed a roaring fire in the fireplace nearly the whole time we were in the cabin. The nights were cold, but the days were sunny and cool. We drove to Spruce Pine for the morning, and Hamilton got to see a train up close. He and Pops were both excited.

The cabin was near a pond that looked beautiful with all the fall color reflecting off the water.

Hamilton loved finding "ticks," and he carried them on our walks just like Pops likes to do.

I could just eat up those chubby cheeks.

Travis and Pops found some corn kernels, so they encouraged Hamilton to throw them into the pond for the ducks and geese.

Since Sunday was Mr. Morgan's birthday, Mom made him a delicious apple pie with "Happy Birthday, Seth" written in the crust. We did birthday celebrations so late in the evening--after our dip in the hot tub--that I didn't capture any pictures of all of us in our pajamas.

I realized once I got home that I didn't get any pictures of Collier; I guess he was napping during the few times I had my camera with me. And our pictures don't tell the whole story of the weekend--which began with our arriving at a cabin with the main power turned off. A refrigerator and freezer full of rotten food had to be cleaned out. Mom's stomach was the strongest, so she got the job. After the rotten-food debacle, the rest of the weekend smelled much better.

Happy Birthday

Today is my beloved brother's birthday, and I can't believe my little brother is 29! We visited with him on Saturday as we helped him move out of his cute house that he's been in for the last six years. He's moving into a trendy apartment complex in downtown Columbia, and he'll be able to walk to work, which I think sounds so cool.

Mr. Morgan, Hamilton, and I got on the road early Saturday morning, so we could help him pack and transport his stuff to a storage unit. Moving and watching Hamilton separately can be tiring tasks, but after a day of doing both we were completely exhausted! Here Mimi is corralling Hamilton back into Travis's yard after he attempted an escape after helping dump trash in the can.

Dad and Travis are removing the coat rack off the wall. Because Dad always wears a hat that looks similar in style to this one, Hamilton says, "Pah," everytime he sees the picture of John Wayne that we use as decoration in his cowboy room. I think Dad likes that comparison.

I was a little sad to think of Travis's moving out of his little house that he's improved so much. He had so many cool elements to his house, like this world map that he wallpapered to the wall in his living room. 

His red-and-black-accented kitchen was fun; I hope the new owner appreciates his taste for design. 

It took all day to pack and make several trips to the storage unit and thrift store.

His birthday celebration was during our late supper; but it was hardly adequate, though the homemade, banana-pudding ice cream was delicious. Hopefully he sees the moving and packing help as a good-enough birthday celebration. I'm sure we'll be back in Columbia in a few weeks to help him move into his apartment. So happy birthday to the best brother ever!

Billboard

 

A few days ago I saw a billboard in Charleston advertising Southwest's nonstop service to Nashville starting in March. This news is exciting for us because Papa Joe and Grandma Judy live just two hours from Nashville! With a nonstop flight, we'd cut our travel time to visit them by more than half. We haven't traveled to Tennessee in nearly a year because traveling with a cranky-in-the-car-after-two-hours toddler made no sense. But a ten-minute ride to Charleston's small airport, a two-hour flight to Nashville, and a two-hour car ride to Paris seems much less daunting.