Christmases Past

It is hard to believe this is already Aidan's third Christmas. Here are some pictures from the over the years...

200620072008While we were at the mall we ran into Daisy, one of the mascots for the Rough Riders. Aidan may have been more excited to see her than Santa.And he went for a ride on the carousel

Tree Troubles

Saturday started out as a beautiful day at the Christmas Parade.Then we headed up to the Wintergreen tree farm where we go every year to cut our tree.We found a majestic 11-foot tree that Aidan & Darren chopped down. We headed home with tree on top of the car with no problems.It was when we got home the problems started. First the tree stand we always use cracked while we were carrying it inside. Not a huge problem. We went to Home Depot and grabbed another one. With the tree up inside the house, we hurried out to get to Darren's Christmas party.

We got home from the party around 11:00pm and Darren had to water the tree before bed. He started pouring it in and ...TIMBER!! The tree (thankfully still undecorated) crashed down on the floor. Since it was so late we just carried it back outside and went to bed.

Early Sunday morning, Darren went out and trimmed off some more trunk and tried to get it balanced better. We discovered the new stand was missing a spike designed to stabilize tree. After church, Darren went back to Home Depot to get a new stand. With that the tree was finally stable and in the house. We decided it was safe to decorate it. We claimed victory over the tree and exchanged some high fives.About 7:00pm Sunday night, Darren walked into the dining room. He was all the way on the other side of the room when...TIMBER!! It happened again. We were left with a tipped over tree and broken ornaments everywhere (served me right for complaining hours earlier about having too many ornaments for the tree). Here is the aftermath.Now the tree is safely (we hope) tethered to the wall in case it tries to move again.

I figured I better take at least one picture of the finished product because if this thing goes down again it is headed to the wood chipper!

Handy Aidan

Aidan has taken a liking to the show Handy Manny on the Disney Channel lately. He is always trying to stick writing instruments behind his ear just like Handy Manny.

Fall Fun

We made our first attempt at cleaning the leaves off of the yard. By the time we hauled the bags to the back, the grass was covered again. I love the big trees but they have a ton of leaves. Aidan enjoyed playing in the piles.

Thanksgiving in Ohio

We spent Thanksgiving in Ohio with Julie's family.

Storytime with Uncle BenCruising with Maggie (the dog) in the convertible.
Visiting the Columbus Zoo Christmas lights.

Celebrating Christmas for the first time this year.
Cheering for the Blue Jackets hockey teamPlaying cards with GrandpaTrying to catch a snowflakeMailing a letter to Santa

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from your favorite pilgrim

and native "the-merican"!

Happy Birthday Darren!!

Darren celebrated his 32nd birthday on Friday. We went out to dinner then came home for some suction cup (otherwise known as peanut butter cup to everyone except Aidan) cake from Coldstone.

By the way, you might not want to share any secret surprises with Aidan from now on. He handed Darren a gift to open and said "Open this one first Daddy. It is a wallet."