Baking, Busch, & lots of Music!

The photos above are of our little Will in a sweater because it's 19 degrees outside and the second is of Allie & Ellen Rose at the penguin exhibit at Busch Garden's CHRISTMAS TOWN.

We are certainly celebrating Christmas in many different forms this season. Most of our evenings are quiet by the fire....baking cookies, wrapping presents and watching lots of Paranormal State. Al got to spend two hours with Ethel the other day which is ALWAYS a boost for her! We love Ethel!

I went shopping early to beat the crowds...only a couple more presents to get and I am finished. I also made a batch of the little workcamp angels out of paperclips....hard to explain....will take a photo & upload it. They are so cute.

Al & I headed to the VCU Bookstore ....Richmond was a mess....nothing had been scraped except Broad Street and they got a lot more snow than us. We grabbed a few things for the nieces & uncles & left.

Sunday evening was a fun time at Immuel's cantata. Our mission was to see Alicia playing handbells. They had a big choir and a full orchestra. All the music was loud and full on, like a Gaither concert, but it was really fun!

I had a chance to visit the Balmers. Erica & Jason are home with little Grayson. She had him dressed in his little WORKCAMP onesie...so cute! Iwill upload photos so you can see soon.

Then, our second type of Christmas experience was the "commercial" one. We headed with the Scudders to Busch Garden's Christmas Town. The park was adorned with lights & trees....so beautiful. We saw a show in the Abby Theatre with great music....had fun celebrating & drinking hot chocolate in the Festhaus....and saw a Muppet Christmas show in the Globe Theatre. It was cold and we were all bundled up. My favorite was riding the carosel.

We still have a big crust of icy snow covering the ground at home. Today we'll finish shopping, wrapping...and then we head across the street to Chuckie & Bookie's for a little neighborhood gathering. It will be nice with old friends and the neighborhood kids all together too.