Our annual Christmas outings

Every year, we make plans to do two things at Christmas, and this year was no exception.

1. Danny's Birthday weekend, we go to the Living Christmas Story (Follow the Star) at Killearn United Methodist Church and either drive through or (after standing in line) ride the hayride through it. This includes a village set up behind the church complete with Roman soldiers, sheep, donkeys, shops, inns, etc. This year, Megan, Danny, and I  rode the hayride through it, and it was as magical as always. No pictures, unfortunately, as my hands were frozen from  standing in line for 45 minutes in 35 degree weather.

2. The weekend before Christmas, we visit Dorothy B. Oven Park to walk through and see the Chritmas lights and hear the music piped through the park.  The park is always beautiful, and we enjoy the walk. As it is unseasonably cold in Tallahassee this year, we were bundled up more than usual. Here are the few pics we took this year.

More from Danny's Birthday and beyond...

I still don't have George's pics from Danny's birthday, so I am going to post the only thing I have. These pictures were taken with my Backberry on Danny's birthday after the party and document how the rest of the afternoon went.

George got Danny a remote controlled police car (his wake-up gift), and Danny and Megan had a blast creating their remote control car "city" in the front driveway.

This week has been so busy, it is hard to step back from the hustle and bustle to think that Christmas is almost here. I don't think that's a problem for Danny and Megan, though.

They even talked us into going to Steak N Shake for a few of their Christmas-y flavored shakes. Unfortunately, after the kids slopped their Eggnog shake down the sides of their glass, Mommy's attempt at cleaning up the mess resulted in a tipped-over glass and an Eggnog shake flavored shirt for Megan.

She wasn't too upset, especially after George gave them permission to have a wet willie contest.

I love my kids!

Happy 7th Birthday, Danny Boy!

I can't believe my little boy is seven! He had a great family party today at Red Elephant, but until George uploads the pics, I have no way to show what a great time he had. In the meantime, I will hit the highlights of his sixth year. If every year is as good as this one, he'll be a lucky man!

I love my boy!

More from the Governor's Mansion

And this one has both me and George in it!

An invitation to the Governor's Mansion

One of the perks of working for the Governor's Office is the annual invitation to the Christmas reception at the Governor's Mansion.

This year, we had no soccer practice, work conflicts, or any other issue keeping us away, so we decided to get all gussied up and go to the party. It was about 40 degrees, so we bundled up and headed out. We made it just in time for the tree lighting ceremony and to meet Santa Claus. Some light hors d'oeuvres one bowl of gumbo later, we were ready for a real dinner. So we took some pics next to the Christmas tree and headed out to Bonefish Grill.

It was a very nice night.