A Walk With Aunt Rachel

Thanksgiving, Part 3

For the actual day of Thanksgiving, we went to Mom and Dad's house in Atlanta. Parker and Rachel were in town from Boston - praise God! We hadn't seen them since Easter, so we had a much needed visit.

After the delicious feast. Doesn't the high chair go with the dining room furniture?

Getting some Nana lovin'



We stayed for the weekend. Friday the boys went hunting, and the gals went hunting for sales. This is the first year I've gone out on Black Friday, and I was a bit disappointed in the sales.

Saturday we picked out a Christmas tree and decorated later that night.

"Hi"

High-five for Uncle Parker

Josiah really liked the "ba's"

He kept pulling the tops off each one and saying "Uh-oh" each time and showing us the problem.

Opening a few Christmas presents early

The finished product

Decorating the tree was always a big family tradition for us growing up, so it was sweet to get to have everyone together to do it this year. We have an order to the tree (lights, bows, candy canes, balls, ornaments). Then we all gather around the tree afterward. We read the Christmas story from Luke 2, have a prayer, put up the nativity, and then listen to Willie Nelson sing "Silent Night" and "Little Town of Bethlehem." The last part seems obscure, but it really does make it feel like Christmas to me.

Thanksgiving, Part 2

We went over to Montgomery for the day to visit the Moseley great-grandparents.

"Ba! Ba!"

"Ba! Ba!"

Aunt Joyce gave him a great toy piggy bank that he can open and close on his own and counts for him.

Granddaddy Moseley has a peg board of about 100 hats on his wall. Josiah went over and picked up the ones on his level. He brought them one by one to Great-Granddaddy, made him put them on and then went back for more.

I made him pose with this one for his Aunt Rachel.

Josiah kept calling Anna "Nana" too, but it does sound different than what he calls Nana.

Thanksgiving, Part 1

The Moseleys were down the weekend before Thanksgiving (I'm a little behind; have you noticed?). We celebrated both Thanksgiving and Christmas with the Olive branch of the family. We did Thanksgiving on Sunday and exchanged Christmas gifts on Monday night.

Checking out Mama Jo's Christmas tree

"Ba! Ba!"

"Ba! Ba!"

No matter how old they are, they'll always have to wrestle.

Sweet girl with her Dad

Josiah came over to my newly opened jewelry box and felt the fluffy stuff at the bottom. He made a funny fish face and brought it to Mama Jo. She put it to her face to show it was soft.

So he brought it to Anna to rub on her face.

The paparazzi

The cool boys

The patriarch and matriarch

If you've ever been to our house at Christmas, you've seen the gorgeous, intricate stockings that Mrs. Sharon cross-stitched for us. She started Josiah's in June, and it's beautiful. And it has "arf-arfs" on it.

Seriously amazing, isn't it?

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

Thanks for being such a great Grammy. I love you!

Oh Baby!

I've been organizing the one of the moms groups for JCRMA (Jefferson County Resident Medical Alliance, aka resident wives support group). This group is four babies 18 months and younger. We had a great turnout with four little girls under six months and Josiah, the older boy chaperon for the morning.

Bailey, Margaret, Ellie and Anna

Josiah wondering what in the world to do with all these cute chicks in his play space.

We busted out the playmat since I knew we had little bitties coming over. It's so great to get to "talk shop" with other moms, especially moms with busy medical husbands.

He Looks Like...

I know we've already played this game, but Josiah has changed a lot in the last year. So here are some more comparison shots...

Josiah around a year

Jonathan at one year, posing with a nice-looking pair of teenagers.

Haircut picture posted previously

Mom mentioned her comment the similarity to this picture of me, which we fondly call, "Jock on a Rock." It helps I look like a boy in this picture.