Weekend updates

The scene that greeted us...
The view from the living room looking down onto the river
Dinner is served
Another beautiful tree to admire
The larger than life polar bear...what a ride!
The whole family at the local, favorite restaurant
Whew! What a busy weekend! We went down South to visit my maternal extended family and had a great time. My uncle always knows how to co-host a wonderful party, and this time was no different! The house, which is beautiful on a regular, boring, ordinary day, was dressed up and shining just like the gorgeous tree in the living room. This year the decorations were all about bears--big ones, small ones, brown ones, polar ones and even flying ones (angel bears that is). Literally a child's wonderland. The Chinese Noodle had a wonderful time playing with her cousin and exploring all of those fun bears. I'm sure the highlight of her evening was riding around on the polar bear! What fun. As an FYI, my uncle attached the bear to a cabinet door that had 4 casters under it and then attached the cord. J and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with everyone while she was entertained (and entertaining).

The next day we all sat around after breakfast talking and laughing. Someone finally realized that it was lunchtime, so before everyone headed back on the road, we went down to a local favorite restaurant, that holds a special place in our family's heart, and had something to eat.

I have to say that the C.N. did a great job the whole weekend. She was a trooper driving in the car for the 3.5+ hours, was very well behaved all weekend and especially through the Christmas dinner eating a whole variety of things and for the most part looked at all of the beautiful things with her eyes rather than with her hands (no easy feat since there were so many interesting things to explore). There was one small mishap with room spray...but we were assured that it really was fine!

Next stop--New Year's Eve!