Thanksgiving in Greenville

We spent this Thanksgiving in Greenville, SC with Aunt Julie, Uncle Harold and Morgan and Emma. We also had Grandpa Capezzali and Uncle Chris in town for a major holiday extravaganza!

Greenville is a happening place! We had no idea it was such a cool city. The downtown area was absolutely impressive. They had this incredible design incorporating the river that runs through the town with the surrounding landscape. If you haven't been, it's worth the trip.

But of course the fun was with the family. We spent time at the Greenville Zoo, an awesome little park located near the zoo, and several spots downtown. We ate like royalty courtesy of Grandpa and enjoyed ourselves.

Thanksgiving Day was your typical sit and enjoy food and football. Julie cooked an incredible meal and the girls played with Zahra and Chris. Shannon and Julie were overjoyed to have their brother and father around. Harold enjoyed relaxing with a day off from work. I was happy to see Shannon and Z enjoying themselves and spending much needed time with their family.

We were all truly thankful for such a great time. Thanks for the great time!

The Tree Has Arrrived!

We went out to "look" at some Christmas trees this past Sunday just to get out of the house. Shannon was bumming and I was in need of spending money. Zahra had been cooped up the entire day so we all needed a break.

We made our way to the Farmer's Market right down the street. It was fairly empty for a Sunday. Of course, with the cold temperatures we'd had lately, they were getting ready to hunker down for the season. There were several vendors selling trees. Upon reaching the first one, we were greeted by a smiling portly fellow whose main goal seemed to be getting us into a tree.

He immediately won us over by fawning all over Zahra and even presenting her with a gold dollar coin for her to save in a piggy bank. Z took the coin and like her mother, stuffed in into her little pocket for later spending. Then he really made us fall in love by saying, "Any couple that can make a child that pretty can have this tree for $25". Even though we told him we were going to shop around, we knew we were coming back for that tree.

And what a tree it was! It looked reasonably big and was just $25. We jumped on it and took it home. After much reorganizing and cleaning and moving around, we set up our tree, the immense nearly 8 foot tall tree in our home!

While Shannon and I have gone back and forth over why we did this, in the end, we are really happy with our purchase. Z loves walking up to the tree and pulling on the ornaments and lights. It lights up beautifully and makes our home seem so festive! The holidays have officially begun!

So the last few weeks of November need to be documented. Let's go!

The weeks following Halloween were filled with lots of fun and not so fun moments. Highlights include Daddy dropping off Z at school Veteran's Day and taking Mommy out on a morning date, some fun outdoor projects involving lots of leaves begin raked with Zahra helping out and enjoying gorgeous weather.

The not so fun stuff included a bout with diarrhea (due to excessive amounts of almond milk, which we have curtailed with great success) and some terrible two behavior that includes lots of fussing about baths and tantrums when not getting what she wants (all normal behavior for a little one).

Video Make Up Time

In an effort to make amends with the thousands of followers of our site (maybe just the six), I will now upload a lot of videos that have been taken in the month of November. Zahra continues to grow and develop. She loves cookies, counting the numbers and letters on car license plates and telling us she needs to poo so she can get out of things like taking a bath or getting out of her room before her nap time is up.

Halloween 2010

We had a fantastic time yesterday for Halloween! Zahra was a real trooper and learned about the wonderful day where kids can get as much free candy as they want, as long as they are willing to work for it!

We started off by heading to the Petriani household for a little Halloween fiesta. We ate and enjoyed good company. Then we made our move. This year's weather was already on our side as the day was clear and cool and free from any precipitation. What a difference a year makes. Zahra was not even walking last time around. This time, she was heading into people's yards without a fuss on her own. She was good for about twenty minutes, then the candy started getting heavy and time worked against her. She still toughed it out after a few breaks. We made out like bandits! And we even ran into some of her peers on the way home. As always, Vermont Ave in our neighborhood was incredible. The houses were done up nicely and the costumes were wild and fun.

So now we are in November and heading towards the final stretch of the year. We have so many awesome things coming up!