Buddy Walk and Old-Fashioned Christmas

Saturday morning, Chris and Clara headed off to a Daddy/daughter breakfast double date. This is their second double date with one of Chris' co-workers and his (jr. high I believe) daughter. Chris says she's really sweet and plays and talks with Clara and she even drew a picture for her this time.

As soon as they returned, we headed to downtown Houston for the Down Syndrome Association Buddy Walk. We walked on our buddy Justin's team and had a great time. It was pretty chilly out but the sun was shining and it was beautiful weather. We walked through the theater district down to the trails along the bayou.

We unveiled Clara's birthday present a little early so she could break it in at the walk. She wholeheartedly approves of her new wagon. Notice the crossed legs? Her majesty laid in that thing, sunglasses on, muching on a bag of chips for the entire duration of the walk. And I was worried she wouldn't sit in it.



We left the walk around 2:30 and got home just in time to lay down for a few minutes, change clothes and head out to the Nature Center to meet one of Chris' old co-workers, Jim, and his wife Sherry for An Old-Fashioned Christmas.

We ate dinner and for dessert, we had our choice of peach cobbler, apple brown betty or sweet potato pie hot off the fire. Yummy. They had lots of different music including a children's choir, a brass band and others and you could have your picture made with Santa and do crafts.

At 6:00, everyone lined up and the wisemen led us down the 1/3 mile trail to the homestead. It was lit all the way down on both sides by luminarias. There were more luminarias on all the paths at the homestead too. There was a live nativity in the stable, which was the first one I've ever seen I think. You could walk up to Santa's workshop and peek inside the door or window. He was checking his list while all the elves were busy making toys. Not the best picture, but you get the idea.

The blacksmith was filling a big order of nails for Santa and you could watch how he made them. He said a good blacksmith in the 19th century could make 1000 nails a day. (Just fyi). I think there was live music we didn't get to and cookies and drinks. Then everyone sat on bales of hay in front of Mr. and Mrs. Claus' cottage and got ready for the tree lighting. We all lit candles and sang carols as the Claus' stood on their porch and joined in. While we sang, two people lit the candles in the decorated tree that was set up in the front yard. It was so neat and we had so much fun with Jim and Sherry. We'll definetely be adding this to our holiday calendar next year.

I hope everyone had as lovely a weekend as the Judd's.