Just Four Short Months Ago......

We were so excited to have a new van! We LOVE our van! It is so nice to have so much space! We can take Beckett and Helen's friends with us when we go places! We take good care of it and try to keep it vacumed and cleaned out! Did I say we LOVE our van? Well, on Sunday we left church and went to Turkey Creek because I needed to run in to Target to return a couple of items and to buy two strands of lights for our Christmas tree. It was going to be one of those "in and out" trips while Sean and the kids waited in the car for me. Before we could get to Target, we had an accident. I won't go in to all of the specifics, but we were "rear ended" and the back of our van is now crunched up pretty bad! Everyone is OK (even though my neck, shoulders and even my collar bone (seriously!) are really sore!) but the van took it pretty hard! We were able to avoid hitting the crazy driver who caused the accident, but the man behind us was not able to avoid hitting us. Some people have asked me if I'm sad about my new van being all smashed up, but I'm really not. I'm so thankful that no one was hurt! It is just a car! We are blessed to have two other vehicles that we will be able to drive when the van goes to be repaired! So, just as a reminder...here was the big day just four short months ago............

And here is what it looks like today! (Along with some dramatic poses from Beckett and Helen!)

If you happen to live in this area and you plan to drive in Turkey Creek area between now and Christmas, please be careful! The police officer told us that he had written up 10 similar accidents over the past 3 days on the same stretch of road. The traffic in there seems to have trippled in the last few weeks! Please be careful no matter where you are driving!

Something Important to Consider This Season......

A Holiday Tradition.....

Everyone is feeling better so this afternoon we made a trip out to re-stock the fridge and pantry! We bought a few extra items so that we could indulge in one of our favorite holiday treats.....Chex Mix! Sean remembers making it with his grandmother during the holidays and he loves it! Beckett and Helen enjoy picking out their favorite parts of the mix! The house sure smelled good tonight!

Helping dad with all of the ingredients!

The final product! Yum!

Follow the Co-pays and the Prescriptions to the Harper Home!

Monday~About one hour after dropping Helen off at Mother's Day Out, I got a call from her teacher that she had thrown up. I picked her up and we ended up at the pediatrician that afternoon. Double ear-infection. Prescription for an anti-biotic.
Tuesday~Since I had to cancel the doctor appointment that I had made for myself on Monday morning to have him look at my eye, I made another one for Tuesday morning. I have pink-eye! They gave me a prescription, but Marilyn gave me some prescription eye drops that are taking care of it!
Wednesday~Beckett had been complaining since Tuesday afternoon that it hurt to swallow. I thought he sounded like he had strep. After a trip to the pediatrician and a strep test, no strep....just a bad cold. We left the pediatrician and headed back to my doctor because my cold just wasn't feeling better and I thought it might be a sinus infection. I was right. Sinus and ear infections. Prescriptions for de-congestant and anti-biotic.

Four co-pays and four prescriptions later and we are all headed toward recovery. It has been an interesting three days at the Harper Hullabaloo!

Bernese Mountain Dog

OK, funny story that I just had to share! Back in October we went to the Orvis store in Pigeon Forge so that Sean could spend some of his birthday money on a new reel. Beckett and Helen both found these very cute stuffed dogs and they really wanted them. They were totally sad when we told them that we were not going to spend Orvis prices on a stuffed dog! (I think they were at least $35.00!) Helen was especially pitiful! (See picture below!) Anyway, one of the dogs that they had picked out was a bernese mountain dog. (See other picture.) So, here is the funny part. Today we had Christmas music playing and Feliz Navidad came on the radio. Helen came through singing along, and at the appropriate time, when the chorus came on, she sang, "bernese mountain dog" instead of "feliz navidad"! It was too funny! I'm putting the song on here so you can try it for yourself! It fits perfectly! Pretty clever!

A special friend has returned.....

We came home tonight from Waynesville, North Carolina after a great visit with our family and found that our favorite elf, Buddy was back! Buddy came last year after Nana and Papa brought him to us and we began a new tradition! There is a book called "The Elf on the Shelf" and each family who has an elf gets to give him a special name. The elf then begins to help Santa by flying home to the North Pole each night to let him know how the Harper children are behaving! Beckett and Helen named our elf "Buddy"! He shows up after Thanksgiving and he will be with us until Santa comes on Christmas Eve! Each day when he returns to our home, he will find a different place to sit so that he can keep a good eye on us! Tonight when we returned home, he was in a basket way up on top of a bookshelf! We are excited to have him back with us for the Christmas season!

We had a great Thanksgiving celebration with both sides of our family! Here are all of the Harper cousins eating lunch on Thanksgiving day!
We played a game of pin the pilgrim hat on the turkey and Beckett was WAY off!
A picture of Beckett when he removed his blindfold and saw where the hat was! Also a picture of Lillie with her Oreo turkey that we made with the kids! The next picture is of many of the girls as they were playing. I wanted to put this one because it was the only one with Marley! She was napping most of the time that we were there, so I didn't get any other pictures of her!

We traveled to North Carolina on Thursday afternoon to be with my side of the family. Here is a picture of most everyone playing a game of Trivial Pursuit...another fun tradition!

My aunt was asked to serve on an art commission for their town and they were given the task to find someone to create a sculpture. After a LOT of work, she was excited that they finally erected the sculpture about a month ago in downtown Waynesville! We went down to see it on Friday and took a lot of pictures! It is really a great piece of artwork and we are proud of Auntie Mame for all of her hard work to make it come together for their town!

Fantasy of Trees!

On Wednesday, Beckett, Helen and I went to the Fantasy of Trees with our friend Julie! We had never been before and probably would never have gone if it hadn't been for our friend Marilyn. Her class sponsored and decorated a tree this year and I helped her decorate it last Sunday afternoon. She received several free tickets to the event and gave some to us! It was so fun and helped us get excited about the upcoming Christmas holiday! I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures with Julie, but it was fun hanging out with her all day and we are so glad that she went with us! Beckett enjoyed the "tubs of fun" ride and Helen was all about the ballerinas! They have a stage where local dance companies put on special Christmas recitals! I see a possible performer in our future! She was mesmerized by all of the dancers from the very young to the teenagers. I enjoyed watching her watch them! The first picture you see is of Beckett and Helen with the "Tea Time in Tennessee" tree that I helped Marilyn decorate. The rest are just random pictures from the afternoon!

We are blessed to be able to share this Thanksgiving holiday with all of our family today! We will go to Sean's parent's house for lunch around noon and then after a few hours there we will head to Waynesville, NC to my aunt and uncle's home where we will be with my parents and my sister as well! Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with your loved ones!

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever!

Psalm 107:1