Thanksgiving Vacation!

Thanks to a predicted snow/ice storm set to hit late-morning this past Wednesday, Louis and I gave ourselves the entire day off to hit the road down south before the bad weather hit.  That's right, 5 glorious days of vacation!

We hit the road for Iowa and arrived by early afternoon.  We relaxed and caught up with my family, soaked up all the blue sky and green grass (aka:  no snow here...yet!), and many other activities...

We watched movies and our favorite show in their movie theater family room.

Claire is practically life-size!  Oh Modern Family, we love you (and apparently, so does Dad!  How many times did you watch the Halloween episode this weekend?) :)

Thanksgiving dinner took place at...12:30, slightly better than last year's 11am reservation.  We dined with the finest at the country club and I carbo-loaded on potatoes, rice, sage stuffing, and other whiteish colored foods.

We nixed the Black Friday madness and instead headed out to the Christmas tree farm!  My parents recalled we last bought a real tree when I was 7, going on 8.  I vaguely remember, which is probably good since they said we'd spend all day searching for the "perfect" tree.  No trees this year--the goal was wreaths.

Whoa!  Check out all these choices!  I narrowed it to four and Louis helped select "the one":  a traditional red plaid bow and a big red bell.  Photos to come once it's hanging.

Why yes, my little sister is almost as tall (taller?!) than me.  Only by those bears ears, though!

After lunch at the winery (yep, that's right) and a brief rest back at home, we headed out once more.  Our destination this time:  the annual Festival of Trees in downtown Davenport.  The FOT has been around for as long as I can remember (and since I went there on a preschool field trip, it's likely been around since my existence or before).  It's swelled to include many categories, but always includes decorated trees, homemade stockings, Gingerbread Village, high school artwork, etc.

First up, checking out my sister Molly's artwork.  She is so talented, and it was nice of her to paint this lovely portrait of her favorite older sister. :)

Onto Gingerbread Village to check out the girl's creations.  Last year they both won ribbons.  This year they were clearly robbed.

Molly's "Hippopotamus Christmas".  Look at that cute blue hippo stuck in the chimney.  Louis says this is probably what happened to all those "real pandas" I put on my Christmas list for years.  :(

And Hannah's "Not my Gumdrop Button".  I love that he's on a faux baking sheet!

My favorite category this year were the fireplace mantels since I've made it my goal to get a fireplace mantel for our living room.  Fingers crossed I find one in time for holiday decorating this year.

Little House on the Prairie

 Modern

 I made a mental note that I could make my own version of what I found in the wreath category.

I loved the farmhouse scene of this decorated "room".

And new this year was decorated cakes!  These were professional quality and definitely something I could see on a Sunday Sweets edition of cake wrecks!



And finally, my favorite tree.  There were probably close to 100 trees, but this Dr. Seuss-themed was definitely my favorite.

We rounded out the weekend with other antics and photo ops.  I finally got my panda!  Except Hannah didn't really want her brother-in-law to steal her hat.

We hit the road back to the snowy north today and I've already set to work putting up some of our holiday decorations.  I guess all of this Christmas stuff over Thanksgiving break got to me!  Here's a sneak peek of what I've been up to:



One day left of vacation!  Tomorrow is supposed to be 40 degrees, so I'm thinking outside decorations?  We've also missed the first two of three days of the Cottage House's Christmas preview sale, so that's on slate for tomorrow, too.