Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It's hard to believe that it has already come and gone. This year has flown by. Anyway, we spent the afternoon with Gramme & Granddad Snead, Aunt Jenn, Uncle Brian, & Cousin Landon, and Great-Grandma Smith. We had a great time visiting with everyone, and Tyler especially enjoyed playing with his little cousin. Landon is just over 5 months old now, and it so much fun. It's going to be a blast having the two boys grow up together.

Today, Tyler &I met up with some good friends of mine from Lynchburg - Larry, Davina, and their daughter Cady. They were up here to visit the Bass Pro Shops so we went to hang out with them. Tyler showed Cady the fish at the store,

and then it was time to visit Santa. Travis & I have been pretty sure that Tyler wasn't going to have much to do with Santa this year. But all of a sudden, he proved us wrong. He took off for Santa's chair, anxious to tell him that he wanted a computer and a Backyardigans game for Christmas. He sat patiently while his picture was taken, then made sure that Santa was paying attention while he detailed exactly what it was that he wanted. We'll have to make another Santa trip when Travis can be there (he was hunting today) and I don't think that Tyler will mind one bit.

We also set up our Elf on the Shelf today. I've been looking for one for months, and Trav's mom found us one at a discount. For those of you not familiar with the Elf on the Shelf, the Elf sits somewhere in your house and watches you all day to see whether you are bad or good. Every night, he leaves his perch and returns to the North Pole to report to Santa about your "goodness". He comes back before you wake up (in a new spot, so you have to find him) and starts his watching all over again. On Christmas Eve, he leaves to report to Santa, and then won't return until next holiday season. You get to name your elf, and Tyler has named his "Buck Deer". (Hey, this is an improvement from "Stinky Butt" which was the first choice.) We've decided that we'll just call the elf "Buck". So far, Buck's presence isn't doing much for us. Tyler peed on the floor for the first time tonight as a way to show that he was annoyed with us and our "rules". What is he??? A puppy????? Ugh. Oh well, he has about 28 days to redeem himself for the Jolly Guy.

Officer Tyler

Holy cow, it’s November. How did that happen?? This year has flown by, and most certainly shows no signs of slowing down for the final two months. We hope that everyone had a Happy Halloween! We definitely did. Tyler decided that he wanted to be a policeman this year, and we found the greatest costume for him, complete with (ear shattering) whistle. As the holiday neared, we worked with him on Trick-or-Treating etiquette. We asked him if was going to say “Trick-or-Treat” to the houses that he visited, and he proudly announced that no, he would not.

He was going to say, “Come back here! The police!” He was going to take his role in law enforcement seriously. But in the end, he did say a very sweet “Trick-or-Treat”, followed by a very sincere “thank you”.

We only hit a few houses in our neighborhood, mainly the houses on our street. We ventured over one street to visit an old college buddy of mine, and that was about it. Tyler had a blast, and asked where we were going next after each house. He then asked, “You think they have candy, Mommy?” Yeah, he understood Halloween big time this year. We then came home and he helped hand out candy to the very few amount of ToTers that we had this year. We had less than 10. Yes, you read that right. Ten.

You know, it’s really sad that ToTing numbers have dwindled as much as they have in the past years. I know that there are still a few good neighborhoods out there that really have a great ToTing turnout, but it’s just not the norm anymore. People are ToTing at churches and malls, and to me, that’s not ToT. No offense to those that participate in those activities, but I really loved ToTing in my neighborhood when I was growing up. I realize that we don’t live in the same world that we did in the 80s, but I hate thinking that my kid may never have a real ToTing experience like Travis & I did. We’ve even heard mutterings of people wanting to move Halloween to the last Saturday of October. That’s not Halloween, people! Anyway, there’s my two cents for what it’s worth, and now I’ll step off of my soapbox.

Tyler had a great time, and he loved wearing his costume, and he loved going door-to-door to show it off. He loved carving pumpkins and watching “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”. (Many thanks to his Great-Nana Scoggin for introducing him to that while we visited with her last weekend.) He had such a great Halloween that he announced yesterday that he wants to be a dinosaur for Christmas. I guess we have a little more educating to do before Christmas gets here, huh? But I'm sure that he'll "get" Christmas as quickly as he "got" Halloween. I have no doubts that he'll be a pro.