TJ's Twelve

I forgot to post about TJ's birthday.

Dane's cousin, TJ, lesser known 'round here as Travis James, recently turned 12 years old. 12!... 12!!... Tuh-wuh-elve!!! And so begins what I refer to as "Birthday Season" in the Spicer Family - where they have a birthday a month in their household from January through May. We had a small celebration that included goofing off and cake. Happy birthday, TJ. We love you more than Chuck Norris. =)

Christmas Wrap-Up

Dane's second Christmas has come and passed. We can't possibly begin to tell you how much we all enjoyed ourselves - eating yummy food, catching up with old friends, opening shiny presents, and celebrating the birth of Jesus. We did sooo much stuff that to report it all would make for an unending post. But here are some highlights. Pictures will follow shortly.
We spent Christmas Eve at Belk Theater for our church's "An Uptown Christmas" service. We held four services over two days and 8,000 people came out to worship and celebrate. It was, without question, THE service to be at in the Charlotte area. This was our fourth Elevation Christmas, and it did not disappoint.
We had friends and family over for Christmas with Santa. The house was packed and everyone had a blast. There was an insane amount of food. And tons of presents for the young ones. ALL faces were smiling through the day. If you weren't there, you should have been.
Pictures say more than words, so here's an account of our fabulous Christmas. Hope yours was fantastic and that you're all ready for the new year! 2010, here we come!

Weekend Wrap-Up

What a fantastic weekend we had! Thanksgiving was amazing - great food and good times with the family. After dinner, we threw everyone out and Jackie started planning her Black Friday excursion. She was in line to shop by 10 o'clock pm. She didn't return home until 7 am Friday morning. Got some super deals and DT's shopping is covered!
We got a tree and lazed around on Friday, ignoring much of the cleanup that went un-cleaned-up from our turkey (and ham!) feast. Friday night DT spent the night at Camp Gramps, and as rumor has it, he actually slept in there! More lazing and more Christmas prep took over the remainder of our lovely long weekend.

By the way, THIS is what that Howard photo SHOULD have looked like:

Picture of the Week

What a happy Thanksgiving we had! Hope all of our readers did well with turkey and fixin's. We had about 20 visitors and surprise, surprise - the day went swimmingly! We could not have asked for better. We so enjoyed not having to rush from place to place, and we're thinking this open door T-day is the way to go!

We only took a few photos, and I selected this one for PotW. It is unbelievable how much I hate it. Can we say Awkward Family Photos anyone? I mean, even Dane Thomas looks angry! Makes you wonder what I said before I took the picture, huh?!


Gramps, Daniel, Dane Thomas and Great Grandma

Monkey Man

For Halloween this year Dane dressed up as a monkey. Jackie sewed the costume herself, which may be why we felt the need to take and share so very many pictures. We took Dane trick-or-treating around the cul-de-sac to show him off and meet the neighbors. Dane was more occupied with his raisins (which you will find in many pictures) than with the candy. He didn't fully grasp the concept of TOTing, and he would try to take the candy he got from one house and GIVE IT to the people at the next house. He did love ringing the doorbells though. He did a great job and we all had a lot of fun. Here's a collection of our favorite pictures of our little monkey man!

Pumpkin Patch

Of course, Blogger isn't cooperating now. So the pics will look a little different than the usual way we lay them out. Enjoy.
















This year was our second hitting the pumpkin patch with Dane's cousin Sophie, Uncle Brian and Aunt Jeannie. We thought this would be a nice annual tradition for us. We went to Hodges Farm, which I wouldn't recommend, but we still had fun.