Knox-enville

We took a trip to Knoxville for the day last Saturday to continue the tradition of helping Gran and Grandaddy chop down their tree and decorate. Having grown up with asthma and horrible allergies, not only did we not have any quaint traditions like this, but we were never even able to have a live tree unless we wanted to risk my being in the hospital for Christmas. So, I love that my kids have the opportunity to participate in this neat tradition.

We found a pretty splendid tree this year, if I do say so myself. Actually, there is no reason for me not to say so, since I really had nothing to do with it except watching and trying to keep the Lilly from eating gross things that dogs eat and to keep her away from the swinging axe. I succeeded in keeping her away from the swinging axe.

Evan, on the other hand, helped chop, saw and carry the tree back to the house. I am amazed every day at how big he's getting. It will be no time at all before he wants nothing to do with any of us. :o( Boo.

Since I missed last year's trip, I was unaware of the new tradition that Gran started, which consists of skipping the hot chocolate after the tree chopping in favor of some hot fudge sauce poured over a brownie a la mode with ice cream. Slightly more fattening than hot chocolate, but it'll do. Yummy!

So, the splendid tree caused a few problems. It had to be trimmed quite a bit because it was too tall. And then, well, then it (or Corin) broke the tree stand that was only 40 years old. So it was off to The Walmarts to get a new one. Yall know how I love me some Walmarts - especially on a Saturday nite. Anyway, the end result was lovely.

And it made a lovely back-drop for this little Norman Rockwell scene:

Gran and Grandaddy gave Evan and Pressley new books that featured, well, Evan and Pressley. Evan's had him assisting Spiderman in a caper and Pressley's had her attending Aurora's wedding. (For those of you less familiar with the princess lingo, Aurora is a.k.a. sleeping beauty. They loved their books and loved seeing them all cuddled up to their grandparents like this. So sweet.

I may be back with one more post before Christmas day, but if I get busy and don't get back to blogging until after Christmas.... Just wanted to wish you and yours a Merry Christmas. Thanks for taking the time to read about our little family and our little piece of crazy.

** Oh, I just realized that I never explained the title of this post, speaking of our little piece of crazy. Knoxenville is what Pressley continues to call Knoxville. I think it is probably because Poppy used to drive to Jacksonville at least once a month, so she was always hearing about that city as well as Knoxville, so she still gets them confused. It cracks me up. It can't last much longer, so I thought I'd document it while it is still going on. **