Tacky Light Tour 2010

On Sunday evening we decided to go on our First Annual Tacky Light Tour. This is a big deal in Richmond and everyone knows about it because houses all over town are decked out with extreme holiday lights. This is mainly a self-guided tour where you get in your car and just drive around to the see the tackiest house near you. Some folks go the "professional route" and rent a limo or hop on a bus to see the Tacky Lights. We saw lots of limos and charter buses all over town and at a couple of the houses we stopped. Chris picked out about 12 houses and we were off to see the TACKY LIGHTS!!! Davis was in the back of the car yelling Tacky Lights...
Here are some pics of some of the Tackiest houses we saw on our tour.

There were two houses side by side that were decorated here..... this was a mother/son combination. I think her husband had started this tradition and after he passed away years ago she decided to keep up the tradition. She was sitting outside all bundled up and handing out candy canes to everyone. We just can't imagine having our house decorated like this but then also having thousands of people stop by and walk around your house/yard. This neighborhood was extremely busy with limos and buses everyone.

More pictures of the same houses.. This was a room off the house with all Santa's and christmas items.

You can see the congestion of cars going through and folks walking around. I loved the trees with lights. It was very impressive to see huge trees with lights covering them.

Another "less" tacky house.

This is what tacky lights do to little ones.... We had driven around for 1 hour or so. Davis had a candy cane which is a special treat and then he headed off to sleep.

Our favorite TACKY house was this one.... this picture does not do this justice. There were lights everywhere- front yard, back yard, etc. It was bright and well done. It is hard for you to appreciate the magnitude of lights and Tackiness. We have a lot of video of this one. We started our tour of this one and then finished up looking just one more time before we headed home. If you ever come to visit in December we can head out and view the TACKINESS of Richmond.
Merry Christmas!!!

New Church

Chris and I have been attending West End Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA and have enjoyed the recent sermons and teaching finding them both refreshing and practical. The head pastor placed the two following passages in the church bulletin last week. He felt like they did a great job explaining the true meaning of Christmas and Christ's incarnation. I found these passages to be moving and wanted to share them.

I hope you find them rich reminders of Christ's profound love.
Merry Christmas!!!

Preparation for Worship

"What was the purpose of the Incarnation but this: that the flesh which had sinned could be redeemed by itself."

Ambrose of Milan, " of the Incarnation"; 4th century

____________

"Man's maker was made man,

that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother's breast;

that the Bread might hunger,

the Fountain thirst,

the Light sleep,

the Way be tired on its journey;

that the Truth might be accused of false witness

the Teacher be beaten with whips,

the Foundation be suspended on wood;

that Strength might grow weak;

that the Healer might be wounded;
that Life might die."

Augustine of Hippo, Sermon; 5th century

Breakfast with Santa

This Saturday we had a special breakfast at the local fire training station..... Santa came to the breakfast on a fire engine. Notice Davis wearing his fire truck pajama shirt. He wanted to wear his big fireman rain boots but we talked him in to normal boots.

He met a new friend, Grayson and they enjoyed running around the lobby and chasing each other. When it came time to attempt to sit on Santa's lap he preferred chasing her around. So as you can tell we didn't get a "good" shot with Santa. He DID NOT want to sit on his lap or get too close.

Trying on fire equipment.

Davis and Daddy waiting outside for Santa's arrival. (I have a cute video of Santa riding in on the fire engine and Davis hiding behind Daddy and Laura but couldn't get it to load.... if you are family feel free to remind me to show you this when we see you... )

Here's Santa!!!

Here are the attempts at a picture. We tried.....

More interested in the candy cane then Santa.
Well Davis still had a great time and enjoyed watching "Ho, Ho" from a distance and asking about him. We enjoyed the filling pancake breakfast prepared by the firefighters.

Richmond Christmas Parade

We were all reunited in Richmond on Friday, December 3rd. So to celebrate this milestone we decided to head to downtown Richmond Saturday morning for our first family adventure to watch the Richmond Christmas Parade. The parade started at 10AM but we were at the end of the parade route so we didn't see the start of the parade until 10:45am and it was a bit chilly waiting.

What are you looking at? (Those chubby food filled cheeks?)

Waiting for the start of the parade... we could finally see lights and action down Broad Street.

Start of the parade.... well after the police motorcyclists of course!!! Don't worry didn't load up all of the parade pics just picked a couple to highlight our time.

Segway candy reindeer.. that is right they handed out candy canes to all the spectators.


The first balloon of the parade was "hurt". Rudolph had a hole in his head.... bummer - one of the men walking with Rudolph apologized explaining this was a deer season casualty.
They had many balloons in the parade which was fun to see. They had to maneuver them around the stoplights and city lines. (This may have been the demise of Rudolph's head.)

Harlem Globetrotters

Really ??.. this was a group of Star Trek folks.. They have a special Legion or something... It was humorous to see them all dressed up.

Tree balloon

Cowboys

Pooper Scooper.. I couldn't resist this pic

Flying Squirrels- the local baseball team
(We will miss Wooly the Bull and our Durham Bulls.)

Here is their mascot- Nutsy, the Flying Squirrel.

University of Richmond Spiders

Christmas Float

Clown on a 4-Wheeler. Davis thought this was cool.

The Shriners Oriental Band

The Shriners in their little cars... I have fond memories of these from the Apple Blossom parade we grew up watching. Davis thought these were really cool and was watching and pointing at them for several minutes.

Noses and toes are numb at this point but we were trying to stay warm. If only we had found a place in the sun.

Hillbillies

Shriners Gator Patrol

Frosty the Snowman

Dancing girls...

Another Frosty?

Gingerbread Man.... we left at this point in order to thaw out. We missed the last several floats, bands, and Santa at the end but we had a great time.

Halloween Cowboy

Before we got Davis all suited up in his real costume he wanted to have a dress rehearsal with Hannah's costume. Honestly this little outfit was pretty cute on him.....
Here he is mooing with delight.

Feeling his horns!

I love the udders!!!!

Now onto Davis's Cowboy costume. Daddy got him suited up in his chaps and vest.

Davis with the cow outfit getting ready to help Daddy "rope" Hannah into it.

It was time for us to take some outdoor pictures on this beautiful Fall day.

Our little cowboy

Howdy Partner!!!

Davis the cowboy with his cow...

Sitting pretty

Moooooo!!!!

So we went with the cow costume even though it was a bit small for Hannah. We needed an XXL but settled on an XL. I wish you would see the cute little horns on the costume but it would not stay up on her head. We dressed Hannah up on Halloween too so that the trick or treaters could see her and she was a huge hit. All the kids were petting her and commenting on her costume. She was busy sniffing all their bags and buckets.

One of my favorite pictures: My two handsome cowboys!

Hannah was so tolerant and did not try to get out of her costume. She actually sat calmly on the deck while we took pictures.

Chris showing Davis how to stand like a cowboy..... Davis trying to look like his Daddy!

Davis and Mommy

Saturday evening our Shepherding Group had a fun party and all the kids dressed up.

Our Shepherding Group kiddos

The small kiddos

On Halloween night, Davis went trick or treating to a couple of our neighbors houses and thought it was cool to ring the doorbells and then to get candy so easily. He was smiling as he walked around to the houses. He then helped us hand out candy to lots of trick or treaters. For the most part he enjoyed Halloween..... he liked the candy, costumes, and friends BUT he didn't like the "scary masks". He saw his first scary mask on Saturday night at our party and cried hysterically ... then again on Sunday we had two teenagers come up while we were sitting on our front porch enjoying the evening. They both had on scary masks and unfortunately I didn't notice this until Davis had started crying loudly. OOPS!!! I tried to cover up his eyes quickly and told him not to look. He then said "Where did scary mask go?" followed by "Mommy let's go back inside".

I followed his command since it was already past his bedtime and we had a quiet story time without any mention of "scary masks".