Saturday, December 11, 2010

Holiday Madness: The Carousel and La Salette

Every year my Mom's school, Holy Name, rents out the Carousel at Battleship Cove for a Christmas party.  We've driven down there to take advantage of the unlimited carousel rides - and get bonus Grammy and Papa time - for the past three years.  I dare say it's become somewhat of a Christmas tradition for us.

This year was the first time I'd been there not pregnant or toting around a little baby.   Lily spent most of her time on the carousel and could ride and switch horses all by herself for the most part.  She was again totally uninterested in the Santa Claus part of the day choosing instead to stay as far away from the Jolly Old Elf as possible.  Quinn was more interested in Santa, but stopped shy of actually going up to chat with him. At the end of the day he did go up Santa and yell "Bye Santa! Bye Santa!" very enthusiastically.  So there's some hope for this one and the whole "magic of Christmas" thing yet.

 A carousel action shot.  The stripey blur in the center is Quinn.


Lily practicing her surly teenager look.  I suspect she's going to have this down pat by the time she's actually a teenager.


Being goofy - a face I much prefer!


Apparently Quinn takes his carousel riding VERY seriously.  I swear he was having a much better time than this picture suggests.


Even Mommy got to ride on her own this year!


After the Carousel we decided to drive out to La Salette Shrine with Grammy and Papa on our way home.  My parents took me there many times when I was little and Lily loves Christmas lights  - so we were eager to take her.  It was a pretty mild night and as a result the crowds were pretty crazy.  We sat in a ton of traffic, but eventually managed to get there.  It's hard to capture the beauty of the light display in photos.  But Gordon made a valiant effort:



Despite the crowds we had a nice time and Grammy was excited to share the beauty of the shrine with the kids.  Our favorite Lily quotes from the night:
  • Upon exiting the car and seeing the amazing display of lights: "There are too many lights! It hurts my eyes!"
  • After Grammy explained the "praying steps" to her: "Grammy, what's a prayer?"  (I cannot even count the number of relatives of mine that rolled over in the graves and began reciting Hail Marys at that one).

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