Christmas Eve

Here are four pictures from our Christmas eve dinner at Granny and Pa's house:

And here is Elyse posing in front of the fireplace (at our house) in the dress she made for Christmas eve:

Ten Views from Our Visit to Stone Mountain Christmas

Holiday Train Display and Lawrenceville with Jessica

Yesterday, Jessica and I had lunch at the Main Street Restaurant in Grayson (near where Beren's used to be, if that means anything to you), and then went to see the holiday train and village that's currently set up at the George Pierce Park Community Recreation Center in Suwanee.

(As you can see above, one of the buildings, a church, I think, is upside down, and I don't know why. Also--though I don't think you can see this in any of the pictures--a helicopter has landed on it, and I really don't know why.)

On the way home we stopped in Lawrenceville to have some dessert and walk around for a few minutes. Here are a few of the pictures I took of Lawrenceville dressed up for Christmas:

Christmas Chorus and Ukulele Club Concert

This year Elyse has been in the Cooper Elementary Ukulele Club, and tonight was their big performance as part of the Cooper Elementary 2019 Holiday Concert!

You can't actually make out Elyse unless you know just where to look, but here is the lineup of ukulele players at the beginning of their part of the concert:

And here's Elyse, right in the middle of this shot:

And again; same picture, just cropped more closely on her:

Another picture of the whole group (or most of it), with the chorus seated behind:

Elyse again:

The chorus in action during the Christmas Sing-Along Medley:

Here, Elyse poses after the performance in front of the faux Christmas tree at the back of the gym:

Journey to Bethlehem

Tonight Elyse and I went to the Journey to Bethlehem at Snellville UMC. Here are a few pictures I took during the two hour wait before we started on the journey:

Christmas

As is our custom, we went to Mom and Dad's house (or Granny and Pa's, depending on who's describing it) for Christmas Eve, where we had our big supper, let the girls open one present, and started our traditional Christmas Eve jigsaw puzzle. Somewhere around nine o'clock we went home and managed to sleep for a very brief time before Elyse woke us up at 5:12 to see what Santa had brought. A little later went back to Mom and Dad's house for breakfast and to open Christmas presents.

Christmas Tree!

Tonight we put up our new Christmas tree!

Elyse and Santa at Lowes

It must really be Christmastime! Anna texted me this picture this afternoon from Lowe's:

Christmas Day

Well, as it tends to do, Christmas Day has come and gone more quickly than we wanted it to--except for Elyse, who was very eager for it to get here. I myself am a little disappointed that the holiday season is nearly over for another year. I probably won't play any Christmas music after today, and soon we'll put away the ornaments, and then we'll just have several weeks of bland (and probably very cold) winter.

In any case, here are some pictures from today, the first couple at our house and the rest at Granny and Pa's: