Busch Gardens Christmas Town

Busch Gardens Williamsburg shuts down for a few weeks and completely transforms into Christmas Town. When I heard about this, I knew we had to go. It definitely did not disappoint. We had so much fun! The park is set up so that each section represents a different European country.

We started the day in Scotland, where Sarah met a Clydesdale and some very fuzzy cows.

 Kelson and I each took a turn on the Verboten roller coaster, which was super fun.

 My mom definitely needs one of these in her house.

 Notice the t-shirt and shorts. Our weather here in Virginia is completely confused. We had cold weather for a few weeks, and then we got hit with a heat wave. It was 75 degrees this day. They had to cancel the ice skating show because they couldn't keep the ice frozen.

 Sarah told everyone that walked up to this display, "Look! The train's comin!"

 The decorations were awesome! Sarah is a big fan of Christmas trees.

 We made it to 5 of their 6 stage shows, and they were all awesome. Sarah got a little bored during one show, so she and Daddy went out to explore Ireland. They were playing some very jaunty Christmas music, and people stopped to watch Sarah's adorable dancing.

 What happens when Mommy isn't around? Sarah starts kissing Christmas lights.

 We found the North Pole!

In England, we felt like we had walked into a Dickens novel.

 We ate dinner at Das Festhaus while watching a Rockettes-style show. Very Christmasy! Sorry you had to be subjected to the terrifying sight of my hair at the end of a rainy day. It was drizzling for a good share of the day, and by the end I was afraid to look in the mirror.

 As you entered the North Pole, the music from the movie, The Santa Clause was playing. It was a very magical feeling.

 Enjoying the light show. The lights on the Christmas tree changed along with the music.

 One of the rides is shut down for the winter and completely covered in lights, turning it into cliffs of ice with waterfalls. 

For our last activity of the day, we rode the sky tram around the park to look at the lights from the air. Sarah snuggled in and told me, "Mommy's tired." A couple of minutes later, it was "Daddy's tired." Finally, we made it to "Sarah's tired." She was asleep almost before we had made it out of the parking lot. We had a wonderful day together at Christmas town!

Crunchy Leaves

Our weather has been very confused in Virginia this fall. It will be 40 degrees one day and then 80 degrees the next. The leaves on our tree finally decided to fall halfway through December. This was Sarah's first experience with Fall leaves, and she knew exactly what to do.

 Crunchy leaves just need to be jumped in.

The next day, she was begging for more. Don't you just want to snuggle all of that cuteness?

A Christmas Carol Comes to Life

We have discovered that Virginia is a wonderful place to spend the holidays. There are so many fun, Christmasy things going on that we haven't been able to do them all. One of the fun things that we did this season was visiting a recreated Dickens Christmas village. It was like walking in to A Christmas Carol. So much fun!

 They had a huge train display in the middle. We had a hard time dragging Sarah away.

 Sarah made a jingle bell wand in Cratchit's Craft Corner. She proceeded to bibbidi boppidy boo everything for the rest of the day.

 There were carolers and a little theatrical production.

They had all of these cute, vintage cutouts to take pictures with. Our effort to get a charming photo was not very successful.

What a fun way to experience one of our favorite stories!

Million Bulb Walk

We kicked off our Christmas season with the Million Bulb Walk at the Norfolk Botanical Garden. For most of the season you can only drive through the light display at the garden, but for the first week you could walk through. We weren't sure Sarah would care, but she was absolutely entranced. From the moment we drove in to the lights, Sarah started repeating, "It's so fun! It's so fun!"

 They did an amazing job with the lights, and seeing Sarah's excitement made it 100 times better. Sarah ran back and forth the whole time. I think she walked at least 2 miles that night. 

Thanksgiving in Virginia

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday. I love kicking off the holiday season  by cooking delicious food and enjoying it with my family. We got a head start on our cooking the night before so that we could have a nice, relaxing Thanksgiving. It was a great day.

 Kelson started the morning with a Turkey Bowl with friends, and then we all enjoyed the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV.

 Since we had such a small group for dinner this year, we opted to make a turkey breast in the crockpot instead of a whole turkey. It was super easy and delicious.

 The sister missionaries joined us for a delicious dinner. 

The sisters brought "black cat" pie for dessert. Super yummy!

The day after Thanksgiving, we had a pie party so that dessert would have a chance to have the Thanksgiving attention that it properly deserves. 

Sarah helped me roll and cut the pie crust for our pie bar.

We cut the pie crust into festive shapes and baked them like cookies. Then we made 4 kinds of filling and several toppings so that people could build their own custom pie. It turned out really fun. One of our friends also brought a coconut flan, which was delicious!

 At one point during the party, I looked over to see Sarah on the table stealing the spoon from the whipped cream. She ran off to the play room to enjoy her prize.

We have ever so much to be thankful for this year. We live a very blessed life. The holiday season has officially begun, and we are loving every minute of it!

Family Photos 2015

While Mom & Dad were here, we had Mom be our photographer for our family photos at the botanical garden. Taking family photos with a 2 year old is a challenge. We have plenty of great outtakes and a few good ones.

 Get everyone looking at the camera and a shadow turns Kelson into 2-face. Oops.

 Airplane! The garden is right next to the airport. It was very distracting to a certain 2 year old.

 Mommy's girl!

Of course it was the coldest day of their whole visit. We had to do a lot of taking coats on and off for pictures.

 Oh, we're taking a nice picture? I should stick my legs straight out.

 This was about when she decided we were playing a hilarious game. All serious picture taking was over.

 No weird shadows, no sticking out legs, everyone almost looking. I'll take it.

 More games.

 Oooh, a leaf!

Aaaand...we're done. I love my little family!