It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

 The weeks leading up to Christmas are always packed full of holiday events and activities.  This year things kicked off in early December with the municipal Christmas parade.  This is always a much-anticipated event and it was made even more special because Gigi and Papa had all of their grandkids in attendance.  This was the first time that James and John Daniel had been old enough to retrieve the candy thrown during the parade, and James was all about it.  He stuffed my bag so full of candy that it would last him a month.  Unfortunately for him, it was mostly hard candy.

 The kids went to see the lights at the Okefenokee Swamp Park with the youth group.  They had a great time and said that the lights were beautiful.  Of course, no trip to the swamp would be complete without touching various reptiles. 

I attended a Christmas party hosted by some of my friends from high school.  We had a really good time.  It was nice to catch up with everyone.

Our family helped decorate the church for Christmas and had the opportunity to light the candle during the second Sunday of Advent.  

We also attended the church's children's performance.  I no longer have kids young enough to participate in this program, so I helped organize Santa's appearance at the end of the program.  Even though she's too big to be in the program, Olivia felt that she was still young enough to sit in Santa's lap.

After the children's performance, we went caroling.  This was the most amazing experience, and I hope to do it every year in the future.  We visited the houses of some of church members who are no longer able to get out as much as they once were.  We also visited a nursing home.  You could just feel the joy that we were bringing to the people that we visited.  It was just fantastic.  

And finally, we put up our tree.  It took forever to get it up this year, but we did.  The kids added their new ornaments from Boston and Chicago, and they now have so many ornaments on the tree that I don't even bother getting mine and Brian's out of the attic.