Grand Illumination

On our way home from Richmond, we stopped in Williamsburg for the Grand Illumination. The Grand Illumination is held in Colonial Williamsburg. It starts at 5:00pm and the houses and businesses "Illuminate" by turning on candles in their windows. There are different areas for Fireworks and places where there are people singing and playing instruments. We met up with Kevin's family and walked around for a little bit before the fireworks started. I wasn't quite sure how the babies would react to the fireworks. When we went this summer Caitlyn loved them and Brittany and Ashton cried the whole time. This time the roles were reversed! Brittany loved them, Ashton wasn't to sure, but couldn't keep his eyes off of them and Caitlyn cried, until she got into her daddy's arms. After the fireworks were over, we walked around a little more then headed home after a long, fun filled weekend.

As soon as we got home, the babies went straight to their playroom and played with their toys. Once it was time for bed, Ashton decided to go hide in the toy box!!

Weekend in Richmond

This past weekend, we were in Richmond with our friends Jerry, April and their family. At the Children's Museum in Richmond, they have the Legendary Santa that we go see (www.legendarysanta.org). Last year was our first year going up to see Santa. We also go up to see the Richmond Christmas Parade.

We got to Richmond Friday night. We went to Dave and Buster's for dinner and then just went back to the hotel to let the babies play before bed. Saturday morning we went to see the Christmas Parade. The parade lasted about 2 hours. Ashton slept pretty much the entire time. After the parade was over, we went to the mall to do a little shopping. The babies started to get a little fussy from being on the go all day, so we headed back to the hotel.

At the Parade with our friends

Ashton & Caitlyn playing in the hotel room

Kenly, Ashton & Caitlyn playing

Sunday morning after breakfast, we headed to the Children's Museum to see the Real Santa Claus. We had a feeling that Brittany wouldn't want anything to do with him because she isn't fond of anyone she doesn't know. Ashton would just want Mommy or Daddy and Caitlyn wouldn't matter either way. I ended up holding Brittany and we sat Ashton and Caitlyn on Santa's lap.

Caitlyn and Brittany did great... Ashton just wanted to get down! But overall, they had a good experience. After the picture with Santa, we let them play in the little houses at the museum.

Thanksgiving

We had a busy Thanksgiving!! Since my parents and Kevin's parents live so close to us, we celebrate Thanksgiving with both families. Our day started off going to Kevin's parents for lunch. We had Turkey, Ham, Green Beans, Mashed Potatoes, homemade Rolls, butter beans, cranberry sauce and a variety of desserts. We sat the babies in their booster seats and they ate their first Thanksgiving meal with us. Last year at Thanksgiving, they were only 4 months old so they only had formula.

After lunch, we headed over to my parents house for dinner. My sister's fiance works at a restaurant so he had to work Thanksgiving morning. Once he got off work, we had our Thanksgiving dinner. We had the babies in their booster seats and ate dinner with us. We had Turkey, Ham, Mashed Potatoes, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potato casserole, homemade cranberries, pumpkin pie and apple pie. After dinner, we watched some Football and relaxed.

A lot of Black Friday specials were starting at 10:00pm or 12:00 midnight. We really didn't see anything that we really wanted to get at the stores, but we decided that we would venture out and see how the crowds were like. My parents weren't going, so they watched the babies (well, the babies were down for the night, but they kept an eye on them). Kevin, Allison and I headed out to Wal-Mart first. The store was crazy, but no one was in line to check out. All of the electronic stuff didn't go on sale until midnight so there were a ton of people standing in different lines for that stuff. We did end up buying some diapers (because we were running low at my parents house) and some DVDs (they were having a good sale on them). After we left Wal-Mart, we headed to Target. Target opened at midnight and the line to get in was CRAZY! Once the doors opened up, they would like 20 people in, then close them again for about 5 minutes. We didn't go into Target, we stayed in the car and watching the people! We went to a few more stores before heading back to my parents house.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families. It was an extra special one because the babies were able to eat lunch and dinner with us!