So yes, we're really behind with our posts. The month of December just flew by! We'll start about where we left off, and post the December pics next.
We decided to take the week of Thanksgiving off and drive to Alabama for the holidays to visit. Many of Greg's family on the Boy side live there (grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins) and we haven't made it there for Thanksgiving in 5 or 6 years. It turned out to be cheaper to drive than fly, so we left early the Saturday before Thanksgiving and stopped about 12 hours later in Roanoke, VA. The next day we hit the road again, but with a shorter day's drive- about 8 hours.
We saw some beautiful country along the way!
When we started out that morning from Roanoke, the fog was so thick!
Kinda CREEPY!
________________________________________________
For those of you out there who are fans of the TV show The Office, we drove through Scranton, PA both ways and sought out The Office paraphernalia. We didn't find much of anything but the main city sign below. Nothing from pics in the introductory song or anything!
Pretty sure Dwight was a volunteer Lackawanna County Sheriff's Deputy (for the first couple of seasons anyway).
Pretty building but didn't have anything to do with the show.
____________________________________________________
We stopped the second day in a small town in Tennessee to visit Greg's Papa's graveside (his great grandfather) and leave some flowers for Christmas.
Greg's Uncle Kenneth (his grandpa's brother)
Aunt Collene.
An overview of the cemetery.
_________________________________________________
We finally made it to Decatur, Alabama!
What a pretty tree! We felt like we traveled backward in time. When we left Burlington there were no leaves left on the trees and the Fall was long gone. As we traveled further and further South, the leaves were back on some of the trees and still colorful!
Grandpa and Grandma Boy's house.
_________________________________________________
One of the nights we went on a Christmas Light Walk. This is Sydney
(Greg's Aunt Leslie's daughter) in the car on the way.
It was "Bring your dog" night, so you had to watch your step.
There were a some really cool ones but most of them were in motion so couldn't really be capture in a picture.
This is Rebecca
(also Aunt Leslie's daughter).
Rebecca, Grandpa, Sydney
______________________________________________
We went to a few high school basketball games while we were in town. Greg's Uncle Brad's daughter McKenzie plays for JV Girls
Uncle Brad and other daughter Ginny at the game.
This is how Sydney passed the time at the game. Do you think the cheerleaders were her motivation?? Pretty sure the cheerleaders weren't even dancing at the time.
Next to her is her mother, Leslie.
After the JV game, we switched gyms to watch the Varsity girl's game. Greg's Uncle Brad coaches this team and as you can see, the game got pretty intense at times! So many bad calls, but they almost won!
____________________________________________
We made it one of the days to the NASA Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL
At the base of the shuttle.
It was still hot!!! j/k
Trying to see how many thousands of us we would need to exert enough power to launch a shuttle.
Greg got like 30,000 and Tyra 50,000.
It took me right off my feet!
Here's what the astronauts return in.
Greg's got the controls!
These are exact replica's of the hands of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. They used them to form the molds for their gloves. They had to fit perfect.
_______________________________________________
It's time to eat!!!!! And we did!
Happily eating!
(clockwise starting at 12:00: Grandpa, Aunt Wanda, Aunt Leslie, Uncle Jimmy, Aunt Sarah, Greg, Grandma)
Leslie, where are you?
Jeff and Grandma Sheila. Jeff surprised everyone by driving down from Atlanta to spend Thanksgiving with all of us.
(Jeff is Greg's grandpa's nephew)
Joey crashed after the 3rd piece of cake. Joey got his tonsils out 4-5 days before Thanksgiving. Poor kid! At least he got as much cake as he could eat!
(Joey is Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Sarah's boy)
Mackenzie's ready for dessert!
And so is Rebecca!
(her father Uncle Chris behind)
Grandma Sheila did a beautiful job decorating her whole house for Christmas in time for Thanksgiving. It was a first, we hear, and I'm sure such a relief to have finished. It looked beautiful! It felt like Thanksgiving and Christmas together, almost, which was nice for us since it was just the two of us and the cats at Christmas.
_______________________________________________
We hit the road again the Saturday after Thanksgiving for a long, long drive. Traffic was a lot worse coming back, but still pretty country.
The owners had a pretty house with a little pond. They had homemade wreaths for sale too.
They provided the saw and sled to slide it back on.
And the hunt for the perfect tree begins!
This is the one! 
And it's down!
We got it on the sled and slid it back to the house.
They wrapped it up for us and we tied it up on the Jeep and took it home.
And here it is in all it's glory! We haven't found the right star for the top of the tree so, there is none this year. We'll find one some day or something that will work.
We have so many loved ones who went through the hassle of the postal systems at Christmas time to get so many gifts to us for Christmas! We got each other a few as well and it really looks full under the tree!
