Holly Jolly Holiday

A nice Christmas was had out here in the piney woods.  Chris and family came in from Illinois...that's a long drive with a 4 yr old and a 4 month old in the car.  It's also affirmation of Nature's plan to have children when you're young.  I don't know if I could do it now, and my memories of similar trips with our 4 preschoolers are mercifully foggy.  Anyway, we are so happy that they embarked on the adventure.

The house was ready...

We spent their time with us getting to know the newest member of the family a little better...

Bea in a tree...

Bea and me...

Bea and Big Dad-ee (sorry, I had to rhyme there)

Bea and three...

Of course, it wasn't all about Bea.  Big sister Maggie helped with the Holiday decor by decorating a gingerbread house and a gingerbread family with her culinary mentor, Gran.

According to our little decorator, the ginger bread family from the left represents Chris, Gaby, Maggie, Bea and the Christmas tree.

Maggie had the most interest in the pending arrival of a certain Mr. Claus.  It seems like her preparations paid off.

As an added bonus, she "helped" Bea open her Christmas haul (seen in the background above).

We engaged in other activities as well.  Chris and his timberdoodle (the cold weather has them down into our part of the country - the season lasts until Feb, so maybe we'll get enough to have a potroasted woodcock meal!)...

We also took Maggie to the catfish pond up the road...she was good at reeling, but not so certain if she wanted to get close to them once they were landed.

Maggie explored the magnolia...

...and listened to tales of Daddy's hunt (with a lot of questions).

There were more visitors and still some to come, so I'll add another post in a few days.  For now, I'll close with the Trailcam highlights for December.

The two deer pictures were at different times on the same day, but I think it may be the same deer.  It looks like a yearling button buck to me.  The black squirrel is a regular, and the cat squirrels are having a party out there (they even engaged a pole dancer in the bottom picture if you look closely).  We did shoot a couple of the cat squirrels and I can't believe how fat they are.  I think I saved them from future cardiac arrest.  Maybe I should grind up a little Lipitor and mix it in with the corn?

That's it for this edition.  I'll try and catch up with a few posts before I go back to work for my career denouement.