Christmas & birthday activities

We attended the Marietta tree lighting for the first time since we've lived here. The celebration wasn't QUITE as big as the one in NY city, but it was close! : - ) there were school choirs performing and a count-down 'til the lights were flicked on. Santa made an appearance -- which was nice considering his busy schedule. We were able to knock off a few shots of Mercer in front of the big tree. This photo (with the blue & red ornament) has to be one of our favorites, but it's a touch blurry. It's hard to shoot photos of this little guy in action, as he just doesn't sit still.

Todd's mom, Rose Marie, came for a visit last weekend. She came for the Christmas Tour of Homes in Marietta - oh yeah - and to see Mercer. She was talking in this pic... or singing Christmas carols? I think I've been to the Tour of Homes every year we've lived here... 10 years!?! I believe that she enjoyed the tour. In my opinion - the highlight this year was of an estate that wasn't on tour but was open to the public because they hosted the tea room (the dining venue) in this 10,000 sf house that's been abandoned for 2 years. The house, Ivy Grove, is at the top of our street / across the street from our "little" houses and I've wondered for YEARS what it was like. It was a grand manor built in the 1850s - and at one time - had 1800 acres in the estate. Unfortunately, the man who lived there passed several years ago and the house is tied up in court trying to figure out what to do with it. It needs a ton of work, but the bones of the house are amazing! I'd love for someone to buy it / fix it up AND keep all of the land around it. (We're afraid that the remaining estate around it will be sold and "developer" homes will go in around it.

After a long day of touring homes, Rose Marie watched Mercer for us while we went out to a nice dinner and to a Cirque-du-Soliel-style show called Cavalia. (This was my birthday outing, as we're both Cirque "junkies.") It's a show that has horses and acrobatics. I don't think it was as elegant as Cirque shows we've seen, but Todd thought it was more relaxing in that there wasn't as much going on that you constantly had to follow visually. There were times when the horses were able to just meander across the stage and drink water from a pool they had - which reminded us of our days camping on Cumberland Island just a week before Mercer's adoption. Then there were times when the performers did some edge-of-your-seat tricks with the horses. If anyone's a horse lover and likes Cirque shows - it's definitely worth seeing. http://www.cavalia.net/

We tried to see Santa as he was visiting the Marietta Square this year. We waited in line, got to go into his workshop, plopped Mercer up on his lap... but this year, Mercer wanted nothing to do with him! All he wanted to do was to get away from this strange man. Quite a bit different from the previous year where he was curious about who the ol' guy was! Santa didn't seem offended and gave him a candy cane - which Mercer sort of played with / clutched. Thankfully he doesn't know about candy yet (still). But, that didn't really soothe him. This last shot (with Santa looking at him) is my favorite! Don't worry - it's not making it to the Christmas card!

We did ONE final thing this week -- went to see the Lights of Life (a chiropractic college here in town that always has a huge light display throughout their campus that you drive through). They have little houses too with different holiday scenes that you walk up to and watch the characters inside. This year, they had a little petting zoo too! (Mercer was somewhat apprehensive of the baby goat!) Notice how he's leaning back to get away... funny instinct!

We have several Christmas parties this weekend to go to. I'm sure we'll be blogging about more holiday events next week! Have a nice weekend. - Candice