Christmas Time's A Comin!

Let me see if I can give an abbreviated version of what's been going on so that everyone won't be worn out from reading a book of Stanley happenings.

First, on Wednesday, the 3rd, KCS Railroad had a Christmas train stopping in Sulphur Springs. So I picked up Shane early from daycare, met my co-workers daughter and grandson at work and took off to go check it out. This was the first time that Braden and Shane met and they became fast friend. We got this picture to compare their sizes - Braden will be 4 in February and Shane will be 3 in January. Shane, of course, is going to be a big boy.

The train was really cute. We stood in line for awhile, but then we had to leave early before going inside because we would be late for church. Shane was so upset, but I told him we would go to a train soon thinking I would take him to the North Pole of Texas train.

The 6th was my birthday, so Jody and I celebrated on Friday. We went out to eat at a great place on the square in Mt. Vernon and then to the movies in Mt. Pleasant to see "Four Christmases". It was cute, but there was one part of the movie we weren't too crazy about. Overall, it was a wonderful night out!

On Saturday, I spent the majority of my time putting up our tree and Christmas decorations. The kids "helped" and it helped me get into the Christmas spirit.

Next, we went to the Christmas parade in Mt. Vernon. It was a nice warm day, but by the time it started it was so cold and it seemed to get colder as the night progressed. I am not at all a fan of cold weather!

Before the parade started, we stopped in at the Geneology Society to see Granny and get a cookie. They had their windows decorated so cute so I snapped a few pictures of the kids in front of it.

After the parade, we grabbed something to eat and went over to Gene and Sherry's house and met up with more friends to go to the North Pole of Texas train ride. The Screws are a wonderful family who have been doing this for years in front of their house. Every year it gets bigger or they add more to it. They are now up to three trains running at the same time. Everything is free, but they do take donations of crayons, backpacks, pens, pencils, toothbushes, etc. to send to less fortunate children in the Philippines. It was sooooo cold but we had the best time and warmed up with some hot chocolate later.