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New Traditions

When we arrived home from Atlanta, Santa sent this to our house.

The Elf on the Shelf

Our job was to read the book.  The first part of the book is to name our elf

Ella named her Shirley.  Shirley has a special job.  She watches the house each day.  At night, she flies back to the North Pole and reports all the events of the day at the Weddine house. 

Each morning, she leads in a new place to watch. 

The sweetest part is to watch Ella whisper to Shirley.  She wants to be sure Santa knows many things. 

Coca-cola Factory

Everytime we travel for hockey, we try to tie in a "field trip" of some type.  The World of Coca-Cola was on our list. 

Ella and dad waiting for the movie.

The Weddine Family - all the Christmas trees in the entire place looked like this.  They were everywhere.

Can you find everyone?

3-D movie is a treat for us.  Our kids do not like 3-D.  Ella ended up taking off her glasses during the movie.  Garrett would not lean back in her seat since the seat had a knot in the back.  It's the World of Coke, it can't be that scarry.

All the different flavors of Coke in one spot 

The best part of the trip - we taste tested 60 different flavors from all over the world but our favorite is still

The mac daddy COKE

We ate lunch at The Varisty - Jeff remembers eating there as a kid when he visited Atlanta.

1st Thanksgiving at our house

Thanksgiving 2011 was our 1st time to host for Jeff's family.  I was a bit nervous and excited. The part that I was worried about was cleaning.  OH! how I don't like to clean.  I was worried about cooking, entertaining or any other part.  Just Cleaning - oh how I don't like to clean  AAHHH!!!!

We made hand print placemats earlier in the week. 

 Seth, my perfectionist, made 3 until he was happy with the way it looked.

 Each day for 6 days we added leaves to our back window. 

Each leaf filled in the blank of:

The _________________ I'm most thankful for

We did

* friend

*book of the Bible

* season

* drink

* color

* person

* school subject

*animal

*food

It was alot of fun to hear the answers

Ella decided to make place cards for everyone. 

I pulled out our china.  It was a sweet memory to look at each plate.  Some of the flatware was still in plastic wrap with the gift card of the person who gave us the gift for our wedding.  (That's really sad but I never had a reason to use all 8 place settings).  I think I need to entertain more often?!?

It was a blessed Thanksgiving.  It truly is a blessing to be surrounded by family that we see often.  We don't have to travel out of town to eat yummy food, visit with family, and enjoy the beautiful weather. 

I think that Thanksgiving will be a new norm for our house.  By the way, I did all the cooking except for the Turkey and Dressing and Gravy. 

Maybe I should post what we had so that next Thanksgiving I want have to rack my brain to remember the menu.

I made mashed potatoes, sweet potatoe casserole with marshmellows, green beans, crock pot mac n cheese, and pumpkin crunch, and pretzels dipped in white chocolate. 

We even made turkey cookies.

I really counted my blessings.

Christmas Parade for the Nutcracker

 Ella was able to ride in the Christmas parade for the Nutcracker 2011. 

We are on the float waiting for the parade to start.

What is this all about?  She is 5 right?!?

Ella and Anna Li riding on the float.  They are in the same dance class.  We got very blessed by both girls being in Cast B together.  That means we will be able to see both of them dance their 1st Nutcracker as Cherubs.

Watching the rest of the parade afiter we finished.  Sitting on Papa's truck was the perfect spot to see.

Only 3 more practices until the Nutcracker Performance.