Nana & Pap

My parents came up for three days this past week to celebrate the "first" Christmas. We had such a wonderful time with them. It was certainly not enough time together and I was so very sad to see them go;( We went to the Bass Pro Shop on Monday morning to see Santa with Cyrus and Brad and then to Lewis Ginter Botanical gardens on Monday night to see the Festival of the Lights. Tuesday morning we went to the Governor's Mansion to see the Christmas decorations and then to the Capital building for a short stroll. Tuesday evening we went on the Tacky Light tour around Richmond to see all of the beautiful Christmas Decorations. Wednesday Mom and I went on a shopping adventure and put the finishing touches on Christmas and Wednesday evening we opened Christmas presents! Cyrus got a wonderful hand made train which he LOVES and a blackboard/whiteboard travel case for coloring....he loves them both!! I was fortunate enough to receive an amazing cast iron pot to sit on the stovetop and cook pretty much anyting in (sauces, rues, gravies, roasts, etc...) I couldn't be more excited. My Mother and Father also made each of us these cool glass engraved coffe mugs with our alma maters on them. They are so cool! I also got a beautiful red patent leather "Big Buddha" handbag which I adore!! It was a wonderful "first" Christmas and I loved every minute of it!

Tacky Light Tour

Brad and I drove my parents around Richmond on the Tacky Lights Tour. It was so much fun! We went to 10 different houses to see their light decorations and they were simply amazing. To qualify for the Tacky Lights Tour, the house must have a minimum of 40,000 lights so you can imagine how elaborate these homes were! Unfortunately, we were in the car the entire time so I didn't get any good photos to document this adventure but suffice it to say that the lights were awesome! Cyrus had a wonderful time and kept saying, "More lights Daddy, more lights!"

The Governor's Mansion

The youngest protege, Cy jammed out on this piano. He is amazing:)

The Monument in front of the Virginia State Capital with President George Washington and the Founding Fathers, it really is quite moving.

The "Brothers". This is a statue representing both sides of the Civil War. One brother for the south and one brother from the north, can you imagine being the mother?

The Living Room of Governor's Mansion.

Nana & Cy:)

The Mansion, very beautiful!

Mom, Dad, Cy & I went to the Governor's Mansion to see the Christmas decorations. The students at Steward helps to create beautiful decorations for the many trees within the Mansion so the Governor, Mr. McDonell, opened his home to faculty and students of the Steward School to see how it all came together. It was beautiful but I have to admit, if I was married to the Governor, I would have done a much better job with the decor in the home. It was nice but very stuffy and not great for entertaining.

Festival Of Lights

We had an extra wheel chair because Mrs. White borrrowed one from the Center, my mother does not need a wheel chair at this point in her life, let it be known:)

It was absolutely gorgeous! What an amazing site, I can't imagine how long it too these people to decorate these grounds with so many lights but it was magical.

We went to Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens to see the Festival of Lights with Brad's parents and my parents. Cy had a wonderful time. He ran and ran and ran. He really loves the lights and the feeling of Christmas. Having both sets of grandparents here doesn't hurt things either. He is being spoiled with love right now...just the way it should be;)

New Haircut!

I needed a new do...and I got one. I have never worn my hair so short in my life but I really like this look....it's growing on me:) I am afraid my 8th graders are going to FREAK out when I return to school in a week or so! I'm not sure that I am going to grow my hair back again, I really dig this look:)

Santa!!!

Emma was a bit nervous to see Santa by herself so Alison jumped in the picture with her. She is such a sweet little angel:)

Cy did great. He was nervous as we were walking up but he jumped right up there and told Santa that he "needed" a Choo Choo for Christmas. To be honest, I expected serious tears from him as he is going through a somewhat shy stage but he was awesome!

Alison and Emma Anders, our dear dear friends!!

Sweet family photo!!

Cy & Dad checking out the Choo Choo train!

The Best of Friends!!!

Stalactites and Stalagmites, we just finished learning about these Dripstones in class so I'm excited to show my students my "find".

Mom, in the cave.

The guys, checking out the trout stream.

Cy was super excited about the huge fish tank! The catfish, " Billy ", 54 inches in length and weighed in at 105 pounds! That is nearly the size of me (give or take a few pounds and inches:))!

My son is a climber, on anything and everything. I wonder where he gets this?

Is it wrong that I was cheering him on?

Posing in Santa's Village

Coloring a Choo Choo and writing a letter to Santa to be mailed in the HUGE mailboxes:)

Is it too late to send it Express?

We took Cy to the Bass Pro Shop in Ashland for a visit to Santa and to play in his Elf village. This is practically the only place in Richmond that you can see Santa for free and it was amazing. There was so much for the kids to do and see, we were there for almost 2 hours and only saw Santa for a few minutes. Cy had a blast and our wonderful friends, Alison and Emma Anders, joined us in the fun. It was a great time and certainly a tradition we will be implementing from this point on:)

South Pacific

Me (super close up, yowza!), Alison, Christy, & Casey. These three have been friends since high school and have graciously accepted me into their posse:)

I have been lucky enough to find a group of friends that love the theatre as much as I do and we get together often to take in plays, musicals and other live performances. It's so wonderful to be enjoying this part of life again. Brad is not interested in going to events like this and in CO we were so remote that we never got traveling theatres and didn't have a local community theatre to speak of so it's been quite a hiatus. I am happy to say that I have been to a number of performances in the past 4 months and am really looking forward to future performances. Lion King is coming in February, which I have seen on Broadway, and I can not wait to see it again!!!