Country Christmas Festival

A little over a week ago we headed over to a neighboring town for their "Country Christmas" parade and festival.  It was so cute and quaint and definitely was reminiscent of holiday festivals like you see on TV.  There was a parade through the small main street with the high school drill team marching by in their sparkly clothes.  There were bands, animals and local business people waving and wishing "Merry Christmases" to the crowd.  The grand finale was, of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus.  All the little kids were so cute as they screamed and cheered for one of their most favorite people and Landrie was no exception to this...she was so excited about Mr. C!

Ella on the other hand wasn't as impressed with the arrival of old St. Nick and seemed more concerned by all the people cheering around her.  She did perk up when we tucked her in all nice and tight; what can I say, she is a girl who loves some cuddles!

 

As you can probably tell from the pictures thus far, it was a pretty chilly day.  I must say that it was nice to go to a Christmas event and have Christmas like temperatures...unlike the 80 degree plus days we've had the last couple of days.  It is kinda hard to find cold-weather accessories down here, so the girls didn't have any mittens to keep their hands warm.  Poppy came to the rescue for Landrie and lent his to her though.

After Landrie jumped in the bounce house and Ella watched, (something about a bunch of kids bouncing her all around doesnt' sound appealing) we went and stood in line for the pony rides.  The first time the girls got to do this was back in September when we went to St. Louis.  This ride coupled with the fact that we live near a horse boarding facility has given the girls quite an obsession with horses.  When it was our turn we got right on our ponies and found out that Ella was riding "Max" and Landrie was riding "Cowboy."  Over a week later, we are still playing horsey and I think you can guess what Landrie always chooses to name the horsies when we play. :)

Once the pony rides were over we went to the little petting zoo area and the girls were in HEAVEN.  The animals on the other hand were not and I have to say that I felt sorry for the little bunnies and piglets that were terrified of all the little hands groping and dropping them.  Daddy and the boys managed to get their hands on some bunnies and rescue them long enough for the girls to get a closer look.

Once I started telling Jay that we needed to take all the animals home with us so that we could rescue them he quickly shuffled us over to another area.  We found Santa waiting for the line of kids to come sit on his lap and tell them what their little hearts desired most.  I was hoping that since the girls seemed so excited about him during the parade that they would be willing to sit on his lap so I could get a cute picture.  Well this is as close as they were willing to get:

No worries though because a few days later they did sit on Santa's lap and I will tell you more about that later!

The sun was beginning to set and the temperature was dropping along with it so we decided it was time to gather the troops and leave.  We attempted a family photo and this is the best we got:

On our way out we saw that they were doing a barrel car train ride, so of course the girls had to get in on that.  I was a little nervous about them trying to stand up during the ride since there were no restraints but they did really well! 

And one last thing to end a great little evening, a picture with my little girlies...a rarity around here!