Festive Festivities

I don't know about all of you, but we have had a great Christmas season!

Thursday evening our little family went to Charleston, SC to go to a Christmas Light Festival at a park there. It was a three mile drive through, but you could also park and get out during some of it. They had large bonfires that you could roast marshmallows at and several booths and stores set up in the park. We had a blast and Chloe Jo loved the lights. She especially went crazy over the light show that had the music.

This was one of my favorite displays.

Chloe Jo was so cute all bundled up when we were walking around the park. The little stinker wouldn't keep her hat on, though. It was freezing so she had two blankets, a scarf, a hat and her coat on. Maybe it was overkill, but I wanted to make sure she was warm.

Friday was our Christmas dinner. This was the first time that we haven't been with one of our families for Christmas so I was on my own as the Christmas chef. The meal turned out so good and we still have tons of leftovers! I fixed ham as our meat because Russ and I are pretty blah about turkey. We could take it or leave it, but we both really like ham. The casseroles are green bean casserole, corn casserole and dressing. I didn't make the rolls. They were frozen. I made pumpkin pies for desert. Mmmmm. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. It was a ton of food for 2 1/2 people!

This year, we actually waited until Christmas to open presents! That is virtually unheard of in our house. This may have been the first year we were able to do that. Most of the time Russ begs and begs to open presents early. I told him a couple of weeks ago that we were going to wait and I made him stick to it!

Chloe Jo and I Christmas morning. Yes, we are still a little sleepy.

Chloe Jo didn't even want to eat breakfast before getting into her stocking! They were all laid out on the couch and she was so excited when she saw them!

Santa put a toothbrush, toothpaste, several books and a pair of pajamas in her stocking. Santa sure knows the importance of dental hygiene.

When Chloe Jo realized that she was going to get to open the presents under the tree she was soooo excited. Too bad Mommy bought the kind of wrapping paper that doesn't tear. I'll have to make sure that doesn't happen again so she can actually get in the presents.

We all ended up with a pretty good stack of gifts to open. Since we didn't go anywhere, our families sent us our gifts so we had those along with our own.

Russ especially loved the new watch Chloe Jo gave him.

I especially loved watching Chloe Jo open all of her gifts. She was so fun this year!

Chloe was so excited about every toy she opened (notice the clothing items were thrown on the couch as soon as she realized they weren't toys). This is her new Cabbage Patch Doll, Opal Melody. She loves her.

And this is her new Elmo doll. When she opened him up, she made a surprised face and yelled "MELMO!!!" It was adorable!

This is the stack of presents she still had after she got tired of opening and tried to run off to play with the toys she had already opened. Hee hee. We had to drag her back to the living room to open the rest of her presents!

Grampy and G-Jo bought her a new Bible. I'm so glad because this one had the Old Testament and the New Testament in it. This is the 3rd Bible she has had. Hopefully, she will take good care of this one and we won't have to replace it any time soon.

This is the blanket I crocheted for her. She immediately covered up with it. She is so sweet.

After we opened presents we went to eat at the home of some of our friends. We had such a good time and Chloe Jo was able to play with her friends, too. Our Christmas turned out great even though we didn't get to see our families.

Chloe Jo and I are going to be going to Missouri to see my parents next week. We are so excited and I am already preparing lists of what I need to pack for our 2 week stay! Can't wait!