Christmas, so far

Maggie and Ella helped Grandpa and JoAnne decorate their tree and then met up with Aunt Laurie to go to a Christmas Festival.

 

 Here's the girls watching fireworks.

 Maggie decorating the beautiful Christmas tree Memaw gave us.

 All dressed up for The Nutcracker.

 I told Maggie we could go anywhere she wanted for dinner before the ballet. She picked McDonald's.

 Notice the pinky. We had a fancy dinner.

 Waiting for the doors open. . .

 Waiting for the show to start. . .

 I was NOT prepared for the flash.

I loved The Nutcracker. Maggie enjoyed it but was also bored off and on. She was squirmy and talked and talked. I finally got her to whisper but wow, there was a lot of talking.

Odds and Ends

Grandpa and JoAnne gave Maggie a bike for her birthday and until it got cold, she rode it constantly. She figured it out in about 2 minutes and then was always asking to ride.

She's started watching cartoons for slightly older kids and they have commercials. Let me tell you: she is very easily convinced she needs EVERYTHING. She tried to convince her Dad to buy Oxyclean for shiny and clean dishes. She asked me if I have auto insurance on my car. And she tells me she needs all the dumb, cheap toys that she sees. Ugh.

Halloween

Halloween was great. Nana threw a Halloween party for the girls. We went to a pumpkin patch before that. Maggie carved her pumpkin with Grandpa and JoAnne this year. She was a fairy this year.

This right before we left to go trick-or-treating with Nana and Gran.

 That cat was huge. It's head was leaning down so it's rear was taller than the house.

 Another cool house.

It was great night. Maggie got tons of candy.

Camping with Jan, Dennis, and Amanda!

We went camping with Grandma, Grandpa Dennis, and Amanda. We had so much fun!!!

Can you tell these girls love each other?

 I know this sounds insane but this picture was taken about 30 seconds before that buck HIT Maggie. There was another buck that was in love with me and Amanda (seriously, I had a million bruises--he liked to rub his (antler-ed) head against our legs, like a cat) but he would growl (?) at Jan and Maggie. Weirdo. Anyway he came over to me which upset this guy (it was rutting season). He stood up and I realized it was time to move but, by the time I got to Maggie, he had head-butted her and knocked her down. He actually got her good; she had a little hole in her pants and her leg. Yikes! I keep telling her what an awesome story it will be. She got in a fight with 12-point buck! That's crazy!

 They went fishing. Isn't this place beautiful? That's Maggie birthday present Hello Kitty dress she's wearing. PS These pics are out of order. Sorry.

 Ha, Maggie wasn't sure about this turkey. He was huge. She was, not surprisingly, mostly interested in the kitties.

 Happy girl!

 Wow!

 The pig. She is not pregnant, just super fat. I'm not sure she can see. We couldn't really see her eyes.

 We went on a tour of the property and saw a million animals and gorgeous views. Here's Maggie feeding the catfish so they'd come over. It was crazy to see them all show up.

 Maggie playing with her Hello Kitty play set.

 Fishing.

 Donkeys.

 Some of the tons and tons of doe (or is it does). Hmmm. . . tons and tons of female deer.

 We saw these guys on the tour.

 Feeding the horses.

 Maggie waiting to open her birthday presents.

 Here is the buck that loved me and Amanda and super sharp antlers.

 Their RV. It was so nice and we had big camping chairs by the fire. Seriously, this was an amazing vacation.