Saturday, January 3, 2015

Christmas 2014 and After

Christmas snuck up on us, as Christmas tends to do--even though Anna and I started reading A Christmas Carol on November 1 (though it's a short book, it usually takes us until about Christmas Eve to finish it, and some years longer than that), and we started playing Christmas music around then too, and we put up our Santa Clauses and snowmen and nativity scenes right after Thanksgiving. Nonetheless, Christmas was here and gone (as the cliche goes) before we knew it.

Except, of course, we really did know it. We managed to watch "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" and "The Year Without a Santa Claus" about five times each, and all of the other shows at least a couple of times. We even added a few new shows to our collection. Nearly every night in December was a movie night!

We also got in trips to see some of the super-duper-decorated houses near us--the one in Smoke Rise in Stone Mountain, and the one off of Webb Gin House Road.

Jessica took this picture of Elyse in the sleigh in Granny's front yard:


I took this picture of Jessica and Mommy sleeping at Granny and Pa's house on Christmas day:


We did two Christmas puzzles this year, both of them 300 pieces. I wish I'd taken pictures of them, but, alas, I didn't.

This year, Santa Claus brought cameras for both Jessica and Elyse, which means, among other things, that there might start being more pictures of me on this blog, since there will be someone else with a camera, at least some of the time. Here's a picture Jessica took when we went to the zoo, two days after Christmas:


This year, because the weather seemed like it might not be too agreeable, we didn't go on our usual post-Christmas trip down to Pensacola, FL; instead, we drove up to Chattanooga, TN, for an overnight visit. While we were there, we got annual passes to both the Tennessee Aquarium and Rock City, so we plan on going back regularly. We went to Rock City's Enchanted Garden of Lights, which was wonderful despite the rain, but we didn't take any pictures.

We did, however, take plenty of pictures at the aquarium, including these:



(The Tennessee Aquarium has a butterfly garden, much like the one at Callaway Gardens, but a little smaller.) 


(They have penguins too.) 


The most unexpected thing that happened also doesn't show up in any of our pictures: As we sat in our hotel that afternoon, after visiting the aquarium and before heading off to Rock City, Anna broke a front tooth biting into an apple. This was a Monday; fortunately, she got an appointment with our dentist for that Wednesday...and also for that Friday, and then for the 19th (Elyse's birthday!), and some as-yet-to-be-determined future date for the final bridge installation.

We decided it was a really, really good thing we hadn't gone as far as Pensacola.

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