We got to go visit Bucky, Buffy and Boomer while we were in town. It turns out that we also got to see Aunt Carole, Uncle Dan, DJ & Kelly while we were at their house.

And, after driving through a Christmas lights display on the way home, we made a stop at “Santaland,” which was worth the nothing we paid for it:

Grandma took us to the Aquarium in Newport. It was a pretty good time, as Jacob tried to tell us when he threw his fit when it was time to leave. The kids loved the underwater Santa (though, for some reason, I think Grandma and Aunt Kathleen were expecting something more). Beth was too scared to get her picture taken (I’ll paste her in later), but here are Jake & Lauren with the scuba Santa:

We also took some pictures of our own:

Jen is convinced that there’s a lot more to do for Christmas in Cincinnati than there is in Nashville. We went to a really cool train display at Union Terminal. Needless to say, the kids loved it.

We were a little taken aback by their hiring policy:

but, hey, it’s Christmas, and who needs those Irish anyways.

We had a huge crowd for Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house. We didn’t get to take as many pictures as we would have liked, but here are a few:

Lauren went to the Nursery Rhyme Parade as Little Bo Peep:

Beth was a little unhappy that she couldn’t go:

Lauren had an evening program at her school. She was pilgrim woman:

Despite all the practice and pre-parties, there’s nothing like the real thing when it comes to Halloween:

There’s something really perfect about this school project Jake & Beth did today: