Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Holiday Happenings


December is filled to over-flowing with some really fun annual holiday traditions. (Just as it should be IMHO.)  Here's the wrap-up of this year's holiday happenings.

First up, the Downtown Dazzle. Believe it or not, this is when Santa, Rudolph and a couple of elves actually rappel off of a building downtown and land behind the jumbotron overlooking Fountain Square - setting off a fireworks show choreographed to Christmas music. Yeah, it's just as awesome as it sounds!  This event has special significance for us because we used to live less than a block away. We used to walk baby Josie over there each Friday in December for the big show! Then have her back in bed before the rest of the downtown visitors had even made it out of the parking garage. Sometimes, we really miss living in the heart of the city. Anyway, clearly these pics show how mesmerized the girls were!



We spend an insane amount of time with the girls on our shoulders. 






After the big show we headed across the street to Macy's to hear Mrs. Claus read stories and to visit the Nutcracker.




Yep, there's just so much Christmas magic this time of year. Look who Louie ran into in the elevator one afternoon! I love that Santa posed for a selfie (and that Lou thought to ask), ha!


Other traditions include the annual trip to Grandma & DD's house to visit Santa and make cookies while Lou and I take care of some holiday magic at home. This year they added a gingerbread house to the list of festivities! Isn't it perfect?!


Lou and I had a really fun night out that started all gussied up for his work party and ended around a bon fire drinking bourbon with friends from California that we were in town for a night of swapping stories about how wonderful life is.

The girls had a great time with Santa! 

For the past few years we've had the privilege of attending the big Awaited Christmas show at Crossroads Church - reveling in the amazing work of our talented friends who make this show happen each year! If you're local and this isn't on your list of holiday traditions, change that stat.


The other big show for us is the Cincinnati Ballet's Nutcracker! It happens every year on our "Christmas Eve." We go see the Nutcracker then come home and prep for the arrival of Santa who will visit our house just in time to open presents for our Christmas at home on the 24th.  It's such a fun way to fully get into the Christmas spirit!






Now, the bad news here is that through much of these past several photos we were actively battling the flu!  Tamiflu & hand sanitizer in hand, we ventured out in small doses as we all could.  The Nutcracker was about all Bea could handle this day and she totally fell asleep toward the end of it. Then, instead of heading to the stage to meet the cast, she insisted on a little nap in the lobby.

Josie was bummed that Bea didn't want to come with her UNTIL she ran into a long-time friend - whose mama captured these great photos backstage and shared them with us.




We all really loved watching the Sugar Plum Fairy this year, since we had spent the past several weeks watching her rehearse before the girls' ballet classes started each week.

So, another month of holiday happenings were on the books! And now it was time for the HOLIDAY itself! 


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