Happy Turkey Weekend!

We went to Emily and Joe's condo at the top of Sugar Mountain for Thanksgiving. Since we couldn't all (Mom, Daddy, Jamie, Roger, Natalie, Philip, and Nana) fit in their condo, Jamie rented another one just a little ways down the mountain. We spent a lot of time going back and forth. Fortunately Emily and Joe's condo was nice and toasty warm. The low of Friday night was 12 degrees. The wind was howling horribly outside. I'm sure the wind chill was probably below zero.
On Friday, Mom, Emily, Natalie, and I ventured out to Blowing Rock about the time the cold front was moving in. We hit the main shops we wanted to and then headed back to a nice warm fire and a yummy birthday dinner and celebration for Jamie. The warmth didn't stay around long though. The rental condo's sliding glass door started leaking all the cold air in. Emily, Joe, Kevin, the kids, and I headed to their condo for that cold night. The rest of the family showed up to thaw out on Saturday morning. The heat in the rental condo was having to work overtime that night and chose not to work too well. Luckily the maintenance people came and fixed it that day. The temp on Saturday rose to a toasty 25 degrees. I chose to stay in while Kevin and the boys headed out to "climb the mountain". We had our Thanksgiving meal and then the boys, Kevin, and Uncle Joe went to Valle Crucis to the Mast General Store. I believe Adam and Jackson were amazed at the amount of candy they had.

Mountain climbing (according to Adam) on Saturday.

I'm not sure who took this picture. Remember I was inside where it was warm. Did Joe go mountain climbing too?

About a quarter of the way down the mountain on the way to Valle Crucis, the boys jumped out of the van to take a picture with the bear. Jackson and Adam came in and immediately told everyone they went to see a bear.

Sunday was so much warmer. We all ventured out to do some mountain climbing- even me! We walked up to the ski slopes. Sugar Mountain actually started making snow on Saturday. They start down at the bottom and work their way to the top. We snuck out to the top of the slope where there were no people and no snow. That will be the closest I will ever come to being on the black diamond slope. In fact, these crazy knees will never even hit the bunny slope. The boys enjoyed running around, watching the ski lifts operate, and watching the people skiing down below.

Look, we started shedding our hats and gloves.

We can never leave the mountains without a Christmas tree on Thanksgiving weekend. Here is our "perfect tree" for this year.