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.