Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Today was a day filled with excitement in anticipation of our new family tradition of visiting the Seiberling Mansion for the Christmas Tree lights celebration and arrival of Santa!

The day was a difficult start for Daddy, as he had to get up and go to work for a few hours, and by mid-morning return found some very excited little angels anticipating a special evening. Daddy was so tired, and Mommy let Daddy rest on the couch while you two worked on Christmas craft projects, and then we all got up and enjoyed a delicious lunch of ham and turkey (and oyster dressing for Daddy) from GiGi, and Daddy warmed up some sweet potatoes from Aunt Terrie.

After lunch, three of us (guess whoJ) went down for a needed nap, while Mommy worked on house cleaning. After what seemed like a short napJ, Daddy got up and worked on re-stocking the built-in bookshelf in the library/study Mommy and you, Ms. Bodhi, emptied the day before while working on the painting of that room. Mommy hurriedly cleaned the entire house (and it sparkled) so that we could prepare for our evening family tradition-adventure! Daddy invited Grandma and GiGi and GiPa to join us at the house at 5:30 p.m. so we could all go over together for the Seiberling celebration. Mommy and Daddy both attempted to call and make a reservation for a horse-drawn carriage ride, but when Daddy finally got through to someone we learned the last reservation had been made an hour earlier. The very nice woman suggested that we ask when we came to the holiday event if any opening might possibly exist, but she stated that was frankly not likely. Mommy asked Daddy to pick up a pizza and some bread-sticks for a quick dinner.

Just as we were finishing our dinner, GiGi and GiPa arrived, followed shortly thereafter by Grandma, and then Grandpa, so we all bundled up warmly and headed across the street to the neighboring Seiberling Mansion.  Grandpa opted not to venture with us in the cold :(   We arrived just in time for us to witness the arrival of Santa, then we made our way among the large crowd (seemed a larger crowd this year) in line to tour the inside of the mansion (Daddy spoke with the gentleman managing the carriage rides and was told he was welcome to periodically check in, but there had been no reservation cancellationsL).

We all enjoyed a walking tour of the beautiful Victorian mansion, all decked out for the holidays with a Christmas tree in nearly every room of the spacious mansion and live Christmas music throughout the mansion. After exiting Daddy asked everyone to wait outside on the porch together, and Daddy again struck up a conversation with the nice gentleman (a retired United States Air Force officer) managing the carriage rides, and the gentleman arranged for us to take a carriage ride (hooray!!!! JJJJJJJ !!!!) and we cuddled together under blankets and rode through the Old Silk Stocking Neighborhood (right by the front of our houseJ) and we all were enchanted by the ride! (Daddy spoke about Grandpa Holsapple's service in the Air Force, to which the gentleman immediately arranged a ride for us... Go Daddy!)

After our carriage ride, we went to the other building on the grounds where the two of you met Santa and we all enjoyed hot cider, fruit punch and cookies!!! Grandmoo and GiGi accompanied you both while getting your faces painted, a reindeer for you, Ms. Bodhi, and a Christmas tree for you, Buddha.   It was a fun-filled night for all (though you began to get cranky toward the end, Mister Buddha) and we all went back to our house before GiGi and GiPa and Grandma then eventually left to go home. Both of you grinned from ear to ear and said you had fun on our family tradition adventure, and so did Grandma, and GiGi, and GiPa and Mommy and Daddy, and we all pledged to repeat next year for another fun-filled start to our holiday! “Night, night!!!”

Mommy had hoped to be home to snap a picture of Aunt Debbie Riffe as she strolled by in the very first carriage ride, but we ourselves were awaiting entry and a carriage ride ourselves :(  

Aunt Dianna is supposed to come have some wine with Momma tonight, hopefully she gets a chance to get away :)

Morning Christmas craft project :) AND our usual nakey time ha/ha

In the oven they go :)

Santa and Mrs. Clause rode in on their sleigh :)

Look at your excited face, Bodhi :)

Buddha, you clapped with excitement while perched on Grandmoo's shoulders :)

Face painting :)

GiGi having you two check out your face art :)

Family photo :)

And our carriage ride finally arrived!  The prices were unbelievably high this year, YIKES! Mommy feels obligated to raise money for a family less fortunate to take a ride next year!

Check out these characters :)-

You look cold and unhappy, but you really enjoyed your carriage ride :)

You did too Bodhi girl!

Seiberling Mansion all lit up :)

This year's Santa visit went over much better than last year's trip ha/ha  

Santa is telling you, Jude, he thinks you've been on the naughty list... he's giving you a pep talk ha/ha!

Boys And Girls

Today was a deliberately slow recovery day from our big travel day to Vincennes yesterday. Daddy made the two of you fried eggs and toast and chocolate milk for breakfast and rice for Mommy, but Mommy wasn’t feeling well so she didn’t eatL.

After breakfast we relaxed and watched tv together until close to noon when Daddy made a coney run for lunch, but the root beer stand was closed so Daddy made an alternate drive-thru at Coney Island (Mommy’s favorite anyway) and after receiving a call from Mommy with directionsJ, Daddy went by GiGi’s where GiGi and GiPa gave us some turkey and ham (and Daddy some of GiPa’s famous oyster dressingJ) from their Thanksgiving dinner. Daddy couldn’t believe how crowded both shopping malls were when he drove by!

After returning home and having lunch together, we all went down for a nap and Daddy tried to play huggy bear and kissy face with MommyJ. We were all still tired from our trip and enjoyed a nice nap.

After naptime, it was work time and we divided labor between girls and boys. Mommy and you, Bodhi, stayed at home and emptied the remaining bookshelf of books (which Mommy later bragged about your big-girl help, Princess Bodhi!) and finished painting our library/study. Daddy and Buddha were assigned the big dinner shopping responsibility, including a visit to Wal-Mart to see if we could find a sale/inexpensive small flat-screen tv for the library/study. We had no luck on the tv, having missed the big sales specials, but we made the best of the situation by finding some kick-ass pickles, some bananas, and some grapes. We then made our way (it was so cold outside!!!) to Marsh for our grocery list assignment, and where you Jude Liam absolutely went bonkers over the huge over-head pipes and duct-work in the building (you literally were screaming at the top of your lungs over wanting to go up and get inside them, so Daddy started screaming about how cool they were, too, and you seemed to lose some interest in them in amazement that Daddy would scream with youJ).

We found our huge turkey, and all other items on our list (and a few items not on the list like some new coffee on sale, a new brand of V8 juice (with black pepper) Daddy couldn’t resist and some needed bread. Mommy called and placed a special request for a vanilla coke and for us to make an additional run for some more paint (Daddy in error first went to Lowe’s for the paint, and then had to call Mommy to confirm the paint actually came from Menard’s---and Daddy felt bad about the mistake because it had become very cold outside and was concerned about taking you in and out of the car). So, we went by the house to drop off the groceries before finally making our trip to Menard’s for the paint (and a candy barJ) and finally returned home to look upon quite approvingly our newly painted library/study (Mommy and Bodhi had done their share of work, tooJ!).

After that eventful evening, we were all again ready for some sleep, though after we got you to bed, Buddha, your sister secretly stayed up with Daddy to watch a show and both Daddy and Princess Bodhi ended up falling asleep on the couch. Mommy stayed up late into the night putting some finishing touches on the library/study and doing some cleaning in preparation for our special dinner Sunday.

All-in-all, it made for another long and tiring day, and we were all more than ready for “night, night!”

These are just the books from three of Daddy's small built in bookshelves, uggggh!  

Thanksgiving in Old Vincennes

Today was our holiday adventure day! We were all up early, though preparations slowed us down and delayed our departure for Vincennes, still we were determined to allow nothing to damper our excitement for our journey. We had discussed taking a caravan down with Sister Kelly and Brother Aaron and Brother Sean Franky joining us, but Sister Kelly and Brother Aaron had commitments in Kokomo. Brother Sean Franky did call early and say he was game for the trip and would drive his own car down, following us. Daddy was excited that Sean could join us, though somewhat saddened that he would have to drive that long trip by himself (and also saddened that Sean had tentatively planned to spend Thanksgiving Day with Ariel’s family, but something happened that he learned from Ariel it probably would not be good for him to come to visit them—Daddy was very, very, very displeased with that news, but has learned to not meddle in his adult children’s lives; and Daddy recognized that we would have a better family gathering as a consequence of Sean joining us!). Sean assured Daddy he would be fine driving in his own car, and soon met us at the house and we were off!

We stopped by to pick up our camera at Grandma’s and say our goodbyes and thank her for agreeing to help take care of Allie and Arlo and Dora and Ella. Then we made a quick pit stop at McDonald’s for some road breakfast and coffee (not for babiesJ). Daddy called Sister Kelly and Brother Ryan Michael to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving along the way, and then focused on driving the long and winding roadJ.We didn’t stop again until about twenty miles outside of Terre Haute to get some goodies and stretchJ.

Daddy confesses there is something mystical about Vincennes, and even Mommy has adopted some understanding and feeling for the historic old city. When we arrived we made a stop for a photo-shootJ down by the Wabash river downtown, and then stopped by our traditional picturesque Old Cathedral and George Rogers Clark National Park and Memorial. We proceeded on to Aunt Terrie’s and were among the first to arrive, followed by Aunt Diane and Rico and Brie, Chrissie and Katie, and then Aunt Debbie and Uncle Mike and Abby and Sophie (what a beautiful little baby girl!!!—and her mommy, Cousin Abby looked great and fully recovered from having her first baby!!!) and Aaron. Grandma Betty was picked up by Aunt Diane and Uncle Brad (Rico) and Daddy assisted Rico in helping Grandma Betty inside the house---she is so frail and having such difficulty getting aroundL! Missy and Kellen (he has gotten so tall!) and Cory and his girlfriend also arrived (but were first to go, as Cory had to return home and prepare to work tonight).

We all settled in for an old-fashioned Thanksgiving feast and enjoyed time to visit and count our blessings for a wonderfully loving and mutually supportive family! And as always is the case, no sooner did our family gathering begin than time arrived to turn right back around and head for homeL. We made a stop (at our own risk) at Wal-Mart on the way out of town to pick up an additional children’s video for the return road trip to play in the mobile dvd player (what a treat that has proven to be for Bodhi and Buddha!), but by the time Sean and Daddy returned to the car both of the baby angels were sound asleep. 

Checking out the Wabash River :)

Bodhi taking care of her little "bother," getting a sucker stuck to the back of his jeans off hee/hee

Yeah, sometimes we like each other hee/hee! :)-

Mommy saw a group of boys riding their bikes...just like Daddy use to do :)

Where Daddy would catch a film :)

Best Pizza in the world!!!

Hello :)

Aunt Terrie's house... Now Daddy was in charge of getting family pictures, Mommy was busy entertaining the two of you, he forgot :(

Cousin Aaron and Uncle Mike :)

Precious Precious baby Sophie with Aunt Diane and Grandma Betty :)

Proud Momma, Cousin Abby :)

Cousin Krissy :)