Dicken's of a Christmas

The City of McKinney, Texas holds an old-fashioned Charles Dickens Christmas celebration the weekend after Thanksgiving. We had never been to downtown McKinney and it was really fun to walk the streets and see all the festive lights and activities. Grandma Burton got sick and wasn't able to go, but Grandpa Burton, Uncle Kevin and Uncle David all came out to explore with us.

Brody & Ella in front of the live reindeer

Writing letters to Santa...Ella is asking for dollhouse stuff and Brody is asking for Mavis the Train and cars.

Dropping the notes into the mailbox to the North Pole

Family Photo in the Christmas Sleigh

This is Ella after she won a sucker in the Candy Walk. Her number was called and she had to answer a question to win the prize...her question was "Who is the big guy in the red suit" She was SO excited to answer "Santa Claus" into the microphone. Her face was priceless!

Brody doing the candy walk...he had to do it awhile before his number was called. His question was who is the reindeer with the nose that help lead Santa's sleigh. He was also so excited that he knew "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer"

Ella was being stubborn and wouldn't wear a jacket...it was probably somewhere in the mid 40's outside.

We saw a Live Nativity performance put on by a couple of churches - ironically the Jewish congregation was one of them. The play lasted A LOT longer than I expected, but it was pretty good. I learned a few new things (did you know that Mary had a midwife in the manger?? -- Im being sarcastic here) Overall, the kids got the jist of the story, but in the meantime we had promised them a bounce in the bounce house but because of how long the play was, we walked up to the bounce house as it was half way deflated. This caused the biggest public melt down from Brody...I mean big! He holds grudges. Instead we had them ride on the carousel. Even though he was all smiles while riding, all he could talk about when it was over was how he didn't get to go in the bounce house.

By the time we got through with the carousel we were all hungry and cold. We went to dinner with the Burton boys and made sure to get some to go for Grandma at home. It was a fun evening to spend while Uncle Kevin and David were home from school.