Wrapping Up December and Jumping into January

 We kicked off December with a Christmasville parade with 13 little people gathered on the sidewalk dancing and cheering the floats along.

 The next day, I tried my hand at straightening Maggie's hair. It didn't quite work out as I had hoped, so we braided instead for our day with Santa and Christmasville activities.

LOVE this picture! This is our favorite event of the festival-Storytime with Santa in the Garden. Every year, Santa reads the story of Rudolph and leads the kids in singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" before posing for pictures. Then the kids are treated to hot chocolate and cookies and crafts. All for free!

 We met up with the Collins clan and checked out the gingerbread houses and Lego contest. Then moseyed our way to Santa's Workshop to play. We ended our afternoon getting some drinks from Main St. Bottle Company and snacks from Jimmy John's.

 We went back on Sunday for the fireworks show at 5 pm with the Rock Hill Rockettes.

 Riley and Maggie signed their name on the Making A Difference Wall at school. Love this annual tradition. Riley wanted to make a difference this year by donating to an animal shelter. Maggie decided to go along with the idea as well.

 Riley got new glasses this month! He was such a brave boy through all the drops, testing, and lens switching!

 We really enjoyed checking out WinterFest at Carowinds. This is the first time they've done an event in the winter and we had a blast checking out the Charlie Brown show, rides at night, and moving candy canes on the pavement.

 Let the annual gingerbread cookie decorating commence!

 On December 14th, we had the privilege of attending a Christmas program at 8:30 AM put on by Maggie's Kindergarten class and then return that evening to see Riley in a 2nd grade performance of the musical "The Littlest Reindeer." Both were stars on stage!!

 We are now a family of four-eyes (with the addition of Maggie's fashion frames and my driving glasses)!

 Shiland Hills has a tradition of lighting luminaries one night in December (this year it was on Sunday the 17th). It was so cool seeing all the bags lit up at night across the entire neighborhood. We joined Kane (and his parents Stephanie and Mike) for an evening stroll.

 Some of the Washington crew made it in for Christmas and we were able to celebrate with good coffee, games, an extremely challenging 1000-piece puzzle, a fun White Elephant exchange, and amazing food!

 Glad Mommaw and Poppaw, Connie and Mark could join us!

 Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at Calvary church (the mega-church in Charlotte) that had an amazing musical program and message and then we headed to Wan-Fu for our traditional Chinese meal.

SANTA CAME!!

 Lots of joys, toys, and noise!!!

                                                                                              And LOTS of silly socks for Dad!

 I got some fancy sneakers.

 Riley is still into Legos and building (robots now) and Maggie is in love with arts and crafts and her new stuffed kitty (who is very much like her old kitty, but way cleaner). :)

 This was our BIG surprise for Christmas! We can't wait to go to Disney for Spring Break!

 After spending another day or two with my parents, we headed up to Indiana to face the frigid temps (I don't think it got above 4 degrees the entire time we were there).

 The cousins had a blast playing together as did the grown-ups.

 Maggie was excited about her LOL balls that she got for Christmas. These little toys fizz in water and reveal a small (and I mean small) trinket. They're all the rage this year, but I think it's the experience more than the actual toy.

 Riley had to go somewhere where he had to practice showing reverence  for one of his Boy Scouts projects, so I took him to my grandparents' gravesite in Fort Mill. It took us a bit to find it but we eventually did. Maggie thought it was cool to see who the name of who she was named after.

 On Wednesday, January 17th, we got our first snow of the winter. School was cancelled before any flakes actually started to fall.We were worried it would just be rainy and cold, but around 9 AM it began to snow and steadily fell for a few hours. By 1 PM, there was enough snow to try our hand (err...rather bottoms) at sledding and making a snowman (meet Bruce Charlie Sampton Fisher below). School was canceled for 2 more days in Rock Hill! Gotta love the South!