Christmas Photo Dump

We've had such a good time running from here to there the last week and a half, and have taken tons of random pictures along the way.  Here are a few things we've done so far.


We admired mamma's Christmas decorations and played with the puppies.  We had a full house this year - mom and dad's two dachshunds (Riley and Chloe), our dachshund (Toby), and Mark's big guy (Dexter).

Chloe, Toby, Riley and Dexter (behind the little guys)

Strrreeeeeeeettttttch!!!  

Trav's parents' church has a Christmas talent show/party every year.  This year I decorated 4 dozen cupcakes for the party.  Most of them had buttercream Christmas wreathes with little red bows!

Wallace Edwards and his nine grandchildren sing every year.  So cute!

Telling the Christmas story.

 We hunted Christmas lights and found some doozies...

This tree is taller than the three-story house it's beside!

Saw the "Tire Tree" on 301 that ended up on Jeff Foxworthy's facebook page...

 Had family friends over for a Christmas dinner...

This morning, we're heading to Virginia for Jenny's family's Christmas get together - always the Saturday after Christmas!  I'm excited to see everyone since I missed last year, but it will be bittersweet since after lunch/presents, we're having a Memorial Service for Travis' sweet uncle.


Wanna see more pictures from our Christmas vacation so far?  Check out what we did on Christmas Day and the Chrismon ornaments I love so much!

Boston Blinks & an evening downtown

Wednesday night, we met some friends in Boston to see the new lights show at Faneuil Hall, Boston Blinks!

Since we don't get into Boston often enough anymore, Travis and I headed downtown a few hours early so we could wander around for a while.  We started at Boston Common and saw the first tree of the evening, which was a gift from Nova Scotia (thanks Canada!).  There was also a tree in front of the State House (you can kind of see it in the distance there).

Our pretty church, Park Street!

Then we wandered over to Government Center, where we decided to take a carriage ride!  (Travis and I love being tourists in our city.)  The horse was super sweet and was all dressed up for Christmas.

After the ride, we were significantly windblown and frozen, so we did a little shopping.  (Basically, we went in every store we saw...even if we weren't interested in what they were selling...because they had heat.)  Then we met our friends Ann, Terence, and Jerin for dinner and the lights show.

Dinner was at Durgin Park, an authentic tavern-style Boston restaurant serving New England staples and comfort food.  Their shepherd's pie is fantastic (3 of the 5 of use got that), but I think the real winner was Travis' corned beef and cabbage.  SO good.



Then for the lights!!  There were lights everywhere - over 350,000 LED on two massive Christmas trees, wrapping around the trees lining the cobblestone walkways, and outlining the buildings.  Then, every 30 minutes (or so they say, since nothing happened at 8pm...) the lights put on a show to the Pops performing the Hallelujah Chorus.

Faneuil Hall

We thought that tree was big until we saw was was waiting for us on the other side of Quincy Market.

If you're interested in seeing Boston Blinks, you have until January 1, 2013!  The show runs nightly from 4:30  to 9pm (7pm on Sundays) and is definitely worth a trip downtown!  Check out their website for more information.

Christmas Pumpkins

I have this thing with pumpkins.  I hate throwing them out before they have rotted - it just feels wrong to me! Once in college, my pumpkin was still perfectly fine at Christmas, so I put painted a face on it, glued a beard to it, and topped it with a Santa hat.  When Valentines Day rolled around, my little pumpkin was still going strong, so I gathered the neighborhood children, and we painted red, pink, and white hearts on it.  Who said pumpkins were just for fall?  :)

This year, our pumpkins are still viable gourds, so I decided to get a little creative with them, once again.  

They are super simple to make.  All you need is red and white paint and a paintbrush!  Paint all your pumpkins red first, and let them dry.

Toby didn't like that I was on the porch and he couldn't get to me!

Once the red paint is dry, I put a festive "Ho" on each one!

I think it makes a nice little addition to our porch.

Now that you've seen the outside, check out the Christmas decorations inside!