LU Christmas Walk...

...Last Sunday, after a weekend full of Thanksgiving celebration, AR and I hung around the house enjoying our last day of the holiday weekend to be lazy. Matt got up EARLY to go hunting and around 10am, he called to tell us that he'd gotten a deer! It's his second deer all season, the first was teeny tiny and we barely got any meat off of it. This one was a doe and she weighed 118 pounds after being field dressed. Needless to say, he definitely filled the freezer-go Mattie! Don't worry, I won't post any pics, because they are kind of gory. AR loved it though! She got up from her nap to see the deer outside and she was bouncing up and down cheering for her Daddy.

Anyways, the point of the story is that while Daddy took care of the deer, AR and I got out of the house. First stop was to Bass Pro to see Santa. The picture wasn't nearly as good this year as it was last, but it was still pretty cute. I fretted over putting her in a Christmas shirt because I couldn't find one. I finally decided to use her pajama top and then wouldn't you know, you couldn't even see it in the pic! We accidentally got two pictures because they'd printed both of them. This was the better of the two.

After Bass Pro, we headed over to LU for their Christmas Walk. The entire quad was lit up with white bags filled with sand and candles. You walked from building to building for a variety of activities for the kiddos. They also had a ton of cookies, hot chocolate and other drinks throughout the whole event. Oh and did I mention that it was free?

First stop, we found Santa...again. He was really good with her and she wasn't scared at all. She's usually a little hesitant, but she hopped right up in his lap as they started chatting. She told him that Santa goes, "ho, ho, ho" in her own words.

Santa gave her this cute little teddy bear. Wish Santa had his eyes open because this would've been a REALLY cute shot! Oh well, we have at least four more times to see him and hopefully get a good pic.

One of the sororities had a "photo booth" set up. They had props like reindeer ears, Santa hats, mustaches, red noses, etc...then you posed in front of this tree. Don't mind my hair, I'd gotten my purse stuck in it and didn't realize it was sticking up.

Outside was Jingles, Santa's reindeer. AR loved him from afar but wasn't too excited about being up close. I set my camera in the stroller to go with her. Jingles' owner insisted her take a picture, but the setting had slipped so we have a blurry shot of AR reaching for Jingles, that lady trying to hold Jingles, and Jingles getting pissed and shaking his head while I tried to avoid AR and I both losing an eye to a reindeer antler. Whew! And this was only the third stop of the day!

Next stop was much calmer, ornament decorating. You could paint an ornament or use stickers. I made the executive decision to just use stickers so I didn't have to carry around a wet ornament and worry about getting paint all over everything. Wouldn't you know it though that my kid reached up on the table and stuck her hand right a plate of paint someone had left behind? This, my friends, is why I never have paint projects at an event. All was well though and AR was really digging her ornament.

Next stop was the library where Ms. Claus was reading a story to the kids. AR hung out in back listening.

Next, we headed to a marionette show which AR LOVED! She stood on the stairs and danced with the puppets. We had to wait awhile for it to start, but it was worth it for her excitement.

After the puppet show, we were done. We'd only made it about halfway through the walk, but it was pushing dinner time. Here's one last shot I snapped of the two of us. Can you say that looks like one tired, hungry baby?

We'll definitely go back next year and try to do all the activities. The weather was nice and warm so we didn't have to worry about jackets or being too cold outside.

 

Did I mention that LU is where I completed my Masters and I'm also going to be an adjuct professor next semester? Yeah, lots of exciting things ahead for me in 2014!