December 16, 2017

A Hometown Christmas

As we planned for our first Christmas season with Cooper, one thing we wanted to do was check out some of the things our city has to offer.  We had planned to go to their Christmas parade but ended up with other plans that day, so maybe next year.  But we did make plans to go to Santa's village.  It's set up with lots of different "dwellings" and lots of lights and activities.  It is only open a few weekends each December and on Thursdays they have Hometown Thursdays where you have to have tickets that only residents can get.  So we made a plan to check out the first Thursday they were open.

It ended up being really cold, so we bundled up in our coats and hats and blankets and headed out.  This is pretty much how Cooper looked the entire evening--it was very overwhelming with all of the people!  We were surprised by how busy it was since tickets were required and it was so cold outside, but we made the best of it!
 A picture of my guys by one of the many Christmas trees!
David's parents joined us for the evening, so we grabbed a picture of Cooper with his Nanny and Pappaw too

 And then we headed to see Santa.  The lady who took the pictures was impressed that Cooper actually looked at the camera!  Side note: he is wearing one of the onesies I made him and it says "Smiling's my favorite" (a quote from Elf) which we thought was ironic since he didn't really smile the whole time.

 A picture with my boy by our Christmas tree once we got home.

We are glad we checked out Santa's Village and look forward to going back in future years!

We also have a new restaurant park in town and I had seen that they were doing Christmas festivities on a few December weekends.  Last weekend was a live music festival and this weekend was visits from Santa (and reindeer) along with movies in the park at night.  We have been to eat at these restaurants with our friends Lucas and Yali so we invited them to join us for a Saturday afternoon at the Restaurant park.
 We grabbed lunch at the Dog Haus where we enjoyed BOGO free burgers.  Lucas and Yali's little guy is about 2.5 months old so we caught up on life with them.

 Santa arrived around 2:00, so we headed out to get in line to see him.  It was definitely a quicker line than most Santa's in town.
 We dressed Cooper in some Christmas pajamas for today's visit with Santa and he gave us a sweet smile!  The restaurant park also had a train that kids could ride and fake snow to play in.  The crowd was manageable and it was fun getting to check it out so close to home!  We love the restaurants at the Restaurant Park and were glad to get to celebrate some Christmas fun there-- we definitely look forward to checking it out next year too if they continue the tradition.

There are so many fun traditions and things to do at Christmas time.  I'm grateful for a few fun activities right in our hometown!  I love this time of year so much and it's fun to try new things with friends and our little family.