A festival for the rest of yall

This weekend was a busy one! I spent a chunk of my Saturday afternoon in the salon chair (more on that to come later) and then dashed home and back out again to go to our Sunday School Christmas party that night. I absolutely love the people at our church, and even though Brian wasn't able to go with me (he's in Wisconsin right now, visiting family), it was great to get to spend more time getting to know the couples in our Sunday School class. And oh my gosh, the food there was great that night. Since I was running late, I was lame and brought a veggie tray from Publix instead of making this awesome Buffalo Chicken dip that I had planned on. Good thing I didn't make it though, because another woman made the exact same dip I was planning on making! Wouldn't that have ticked me off if I was late, and slaved over a dish, only to have it duplicated? So I was happily late with my veggie tray, and I'm still noshing on the leftovers a day or two later. I have tried giving Bradley little tastes of the vegetables, and even dipped them in ranch to try and make them more appealing, but alas, no luck! Interestingly enough, at his checkup last week, his doctor assured me that as long as Bradley was getting 4-5 servings a day of fruit or veggies, that he was fine. So I guess we're good for now, and I'll keep pushing broccoli, green beans, and zucchini on him every chance I get (my faves).

Anyways, Sunday in church the choir sang 3 Christmas anthems we've been working on, and I got a chance to show off a little. There's a high B flat at the end of one of the songs that I got bored with the alto note one night in rehearsal and decided to sing instead since no one else was singing it. From then on I got the go-ahead from my music minister to let loose, and it turned a few heads in church this Sunday. It's very hard to hit a high B flat without blasting it, and I'm good, but I'm not that good, so for me it's loud and proud or not at all. Hardly anyone here even knows I can really sing because I am never given the opportunity to do so. Hopefully 2010 will be a different story there.

The Titans won again on Sunday (Whoop Whoop!) and the Cats won big on Saturday against IU (sorry, mom)! I had Bradley dressed in his cute basketball uniform that Ellen sent him just for the occasion.

Sunday evening was our church's Christmas festival. The idea being that as Christians, we should celebrate Christmas better than anyone, so we did! With pony rides, popcorn, cotton candy, balloons, face painting, bouncy castles, hotdogs, fried oreos and snickers, and tons of food brought by the church members. There was a tiny Shetland pony named Babycakes that Bradley got to ride. You can check out the video on the video bar to the right for the live action footage.

Bradley is not too sure about wearing this helmet!

He also wasn't too sure about the pony ride itself, but he made it around twice on Babycakes at any rate, and posed for photo-ops to document this first wild animal encounter!
Inside the gym, Grandma Anna convinced me that Bradley wanted to go down the big blow up slide, so she took him... again and again... I'm still not sure who had more fun- Bradley or Ann!? This picture is the first time they went down. With each successive trip down the slide, Bradley's grin was wider and wider, but my camera battery was dying, so the apprehensive shot is the only one you're getting!
Bradley and Grandma Anna, posing for a picture in between trips down the slide!

We hung out at the church for several hours that night, meeting new people, and getting better acquainted with others. Bradley ate, and ate, and ate. He mooched food off of friends and strangers alike. This is becoming a trend for him. People are beginning to wonder if I ever feed my child, I'm sure. I finally got to try a fried oreo, after the unfortunate experience at the Wilson County Fair several years ago. They were good, but not what I expected. The oreo was mushy inside. I was expecting some crunch of the cookie under the pure-fried goodness. Maybe they're not always this way and I just had a bad apple? Perhaps someone else who is more knowledgeable about fair food could educate me in the ways of fried oreos. But it was worth the wait, and I can definitely tell you no one in their right mind would want or need the 6 fried cookies those crazy fair vendors were trying to pawn off on me. Highway robbery I tell you!

Kim, David and the kids met Ann and myself at the church too, so we got to hang out with them and watch the kids play, or in the case of Kim and Ann, play with the kids. Good times were had by all.