I love hot chocolate.

I have recently introduced Aidan to hot chocolate. He is a fan.

More from Thanksgiving

I just discovered a few more photos from Thanksgiving on my backup camera. Don't laugh at me. Yes, I have a backup camera. It's one of those tiny ones that fits in my purse/diaper bag/whatever I happen to be carrying that day, instead of lugging around a giant camera case.
Here's Aidan building with Coke cans.

And I believe this little episode was called "Ab Attack." They did this AFTER dinner, the bunch of crazies. Papaw looks like he's working the hardest, doesn't he?

Everybody loves a sleeping baby.

Ooh...

We used our fireplace for the first time last night. Love it.

My prize!

I went to my first Christmas party of the season last night, our squadron wives' group's ornament exchange, and I came home with the door prize! This is the most beautiful gingerbread house I've ever seen! A lady in Haughton, Louisiana has a little shop behind her house where she makes these. She's having an open house next weekend with a house-making demo. I may have to go watch. We're going to wait a few weeks, of course, but we're definitely eating this baby before Christmas is over.

Haunted House

She probably didn't know photos of this would end up on the internet, but here's the funniest Thanksgiving story ever. Okay, maybe not THE funniest, but it's pretty good.

This year, my family celebrated Thanksgiving at Jasmine Hill, an old plantation home in Mississippi that my father's family owns. Rumor is the place is haunted. The first night we were all there, my dad and a couple others thought they heard something in the middle of the night. Dad said it sounded like chains dragging on the wood floor. He got out of bed to see what it was, but it was gone by the time he got there.

The second night, a few more said they heard the same noise in the middle of the night. Again, whatever it was had disappeared by the time anyone made it out of bed to check things out.

The last night of our stay, I woke up around 3:00am hearing all kinds of racket going up and down the stairs, and I'm thinking, "No way a ghost makes that much noise." So I get out of bed to see what's going on. By the time I make it to the stairs, I hear my dad and my aunt Cheryl laughing. Here's what we found at the bottom of the stairs:

My grandmother, wearing a white nightgown over her clothes, underpants on her head, and dragging a chain attached to a length of rope behind her. It was hilarious. She must've wanted to get caught that last night. If she'd done it the same as every other night, she probably would've gotten away with it. Anyway, it's a good story to tell, and it was definitely memorable. If he didn't before, John definitely thinks my family's crazy now.

A Smiley Lil' Turkey

This is a photo of Neely on Thanksgiving day in her lil' turkey outfit. I'd have one of Aidan here too, but he wasn't nearly as cooperative. Neely Caroline is the happiest, most generous baby I've ever seen when it comes to smiling...and her smiles always involve that cute little tongue you see sticking out there. Precious! I have some video of her playing and smiling that I will post just as soon as I unearth the cord that connects my video camera to the computer.