Happy Thanksgiving and Photos with Santa

The holidays are understandably difficult this year especially, but the days leading up to holidays seem even harder than the actual day.  We all had our moments on Thanksgiving, but mom did an awesome job preparing a meal for us and stayed distracted which was good.  

We ended up doing a Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Saturday so that the girls could be with us.  This time we did a traditional turkey and also made a sweet potato pie.  My mom came down for dinner and lucky for the girls, also took them to see Santa at Dominion Outdoors.  We attempted to get some pictures of them at home and with the dogs, but you can imagine what it was like trying to wrangle 3 dogs and 2 kids!  

Thanksgiving at Mom's house

Santa!

Look at that plate!

The wishbone

Turkey in a pot? Hunting!

We squished this 13 lb turkey in the IP, and I think it took 45 minutes to cool.  Now that is just crazy!  It made for a delicious pre-thanksgiving dinner dinner. 

My gravy was on point!

 It's finally time for rifle season.  Jeff and I got out as much as we could but didn't end up shooting anything.  I did see a nice buck on Thanksgiving morning, but he took off before I could get a shot.
We spent our time testing out my new heated socks and hand warmer as well we reading some good Elin Hilderbrand books, and of course taking selfies and annoying each other. ;)

We did get to see a cute 4 pointer walk right up to us while we were on the ground.  It was soooo cool to sit there and wait to see when he'd realize that we were so close to him!

A little early, or not...

We all know that the Snead family does not play when it comes to decorations, especially for Christmas!  So it should be no surprise that we started putting everything up today!  

Nothing makes it feel more like fall than cuddles with the dogs, chicken noodle soup, and hot chocolate!

Our conductor while decorating

Muzzleloader Season

It's that time of the year!!  This year we have new property to explore (White Mountain), so I was able to get out during muzzleloader season and check out the placement of our stands and start to get a feel of the land.  This time of year is beautiful, but it is also hard to see through the leaves.  

Jeff saw quite a few smaller deer during the season and killed a nice buck before muzzleloader season ended.  

Hiking and Deer

Mike and my mom went on a nice little hike/picnic at Humpback Rocks.  It looked like so much fun that my mom and I went to the same spot the next day. :)  We picked up some yummy food from Stella, Bella, and Lucy's on the way.  Mom ended up getting some good pics of the what seemed like hundreds of chipmunks that were running around chattering.  I loved watching how fast they ran around the logs and rocks.  We hiked a good ways but didn't see anything large animals.  Either way, it was a beautiful day and nice to be out!  

The last pic is of a beautiful buck that has been visiting my mom's backyard.  It is a shame I haven't seen him while hunting. ;)