Thanksgiving

Nov. 19th...

Jason, Jackson, Lincoln, and I drove down to Birmingham for Thanksgiving this year. We left around 10:30pm and drove all night with a few stops for gas, restroom breaks, bottle feeding and diaper changes. We stopped at the Cracker Barrell for breakfast mostly so we could get out of the truck for a little while and because Jason LOVES that place. (It's funny because Jason and I have this rule that whenever we go "out to eat" we can never order the same thing twice....that way we try new things. Well, Jason breaks that rule everytime we go to Cracker Barrell.....he ALWAYS gets the country fried steak with mac-n-cheese and of course sweet tea!!!!
Here's a picture of Jason and Jackson at Cracker Barrell....




We FINALLY arrived in B'ham around 2:30pm the following day (~16 hours). Jackson was a great rider and Jason did the majority of the driving....as usual.

Nov. 20th....
After catching up on our sleep....we went to the dealership to get the truck "tuned up" and to let everyone meet Jackson. Mumzie (Susan) carried Jacksom all over introducing him to all of her employees.....she even put him to work. She was teaching him how to highlight....

Jackson is GREAT at staring contests and he loves his Bumbo seat....




Nov. 21st...

Family party with all of the Strickland's....Steve, Angie, Steven, Haley, Chris, Sheila, Courtney, and Jennifer, Ann Zanell (Ike), Josh, JD, Mumzie (Susan), and some other friends. This was the first time everyone got to meet Jackson. (He was almost 4 months old)

We always have yummy food at these get togethers. We ate some chips-n-dip, hummus, crackers, "Jim and Nick's BBQ", and birthday cakes. Man we really miss good southern BBQ. We celebrated Josh's and my birthday so we each had our own b-day cake...his was a triple chocolate cake and mine was a strawberry cake with strawberry icing. Both were delicious. Josh and I have the same b-day (Dec. 4th) expect I'm 2 years older...he's still so young!!!












*Notice Josh's choice of cutting utensil....he's so freakin funny!!*


Here are the Strickland Cousins....Courtney, Jennifer, and Haley.

Uncle Chris with Jackson... Ann Zanell.... and Sheila, Chris & Fer Fer

Dill Pickers Concert….Friday Nov. 21st
We went to a concert on Friday night to see the “Dill Pickers”. John Stewart’s father was in the band. (John Stewart is Jason’s good friend that he grew up with and his father is the man who married Jason and I at our wedding). It was a really great performance / skit that included 5 or 6 men and 2 women who all played several different instruments and they all sang a variety of songs. Most of the songs had a bluegrass and folk tone to them. There was also a very well-known story teller who was a woman in her 90’s from Selma, Alabama. She told stories about growing up in the south….she was very entertaining. She was I little old lady who wore a t-shirt that said, “Make Cornbread….Not War”.

Friends and Neighbors….Nov. 22nd
One night Susan invited all their friends and neighbors to come over for hors d’ouervs and deserts and to meet Jackson. It was fun to see everyone again. The old neighbors, the Wadley’s, came over and Mallory had just had a baby a month younger than Jackson. His name was Nate and he was a cutie!


Lake House…Nov. 24th -Nov. 30th