Christmas Attempted Vacation

Mom and Dad apparently are frigid weather magnets, and terrible at planning mini-vacations.

We didn't drive up to Chattanooga after Christmas, since the Irma evacuation in September scarred us. So, we thought a quick trip to St. Augustine would be fun. We didn't plan for another Arctic rain blast that literally came the day we arrived.  

We tried Ripley's museum with 1,000 other tourists. This is not recommended. But the naked David outside was funny.

And the old fashioned Crapper's toilets were a highlight.

The fort was cool. We recommend visiting when it is warmer than 40 degrees and not raining.

Rumor has it that there are many other fun things to do in St. Augustine. Most of them are outside. We didn't do any of them.

We loved our freezing mini-vacation so much that we drove home a day early. We like being outside better when it's 70 degrees. 

Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas! Mom's gift this year was a new portrait lens for her camera. We were thrilled to pose for her on the way to church.

She said this lens accentuates our awesome freckles, and blurs the background.

Ryan is excited to work on his natural smile for her. 

The Christmas Eve service was nice, it's a perfect reminder that we are celebrating Jesus's birthday.

But we may need to revisit our Chinese restaurant dinner tradition for next year. It was enhanced by the fire alarm that can't be turned off until the fire department arrives with the secret key code.

We're definitely keeping the tradition of opening one gift after church.

By the way, Mom's new lens is not good for action shots.

And we're definitely keeping the tradition of Santa!

We are still in the American Girl Doll and Lego stage.

We didn't get to see Marmee and Poppy and our cousins this year for Christmas break, but they were very much with us in spirit.

Mom and Dad are still in the Happily Exhausted stage.

And Mom is still taking pictures of us sleeping. She loved our Christmas Night slumber parties.