Holiday Displays

The holiday displays are so pretty this time of year. The trick is to find some time in the busyness of it all to enjoy and appreciate a few along the way. When my brother and his family are in town from their warm Casa in Miami, there are two things we always see: the Hollidazzle Parade, and the Macy's Annual Holiday Display. This year, two snowstorms and frigid temps kept us from the parade...in fact, since their surprise visit to the kids' Christmas program on Friday, we have not been able to see them at all.

All was not lost by the way of Christmas visits, as yesterday, we were blessed by the much anticipated visit from Our Friends, the Haucks. It is something we look forward to each Christmas season, and we are so thankful that even though they are so busy visiting family of their own in the few short days they are in the cities, they somehow always carve some time out for us. We had fun playing with our friends, listening to Beth play the grand piano, and showing Lisa how to make tortillas with her new present. She even made us a scrumptious batch on her own! Melissa and I had to duck out early for a therapy appointment...it was sad to leave the happy house with Our Friends behind.

On Tuesday, things came together for an extremely short time to allow us to visit with our cousins again at the Macy's display. Because of the snow the night before, the ride was almost double in length for us. By the time we had crawled our way to a parking space in downtown Minneapolis, we had a mere 2 hours before we would have to leave to get Jonny to his play rehearsal on time.

We met up with our cousins at the entrance of the display, and enjoyed the scenes from a day in the life of an elf. It was a very cute look into the behind-the-scenes goings on at Santa's workshop.

We also got to visit with Santa again, and Jonny was able to ask him for his most wanted present this year---a hamster. That is kind of a tall order, even for Santa on the day before Christmas Eve. The photographers were very patient and kind as they spent 10-15 minutes getting one picture of our whole gang of kids.

And we couldn't leave without a gingerbread cookie from Mrs.Claus' bakery. Since we didn't have time for lunch, that cookie would just have to do!

Speaking of Holiday Displays....ours has made someone's Limousine ride service list. We now regularly get the same white stretch limos stopping by. Sometimes people even get out and dance in the street! It's kind of funny.