It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

As promised, here is Christmas post #1.

 One weekend when my parents came to visit they bought us a Christmas tree!

 I was soo excited to put it up I almost didn’t make it until after Thanksgiving, but thanks to Leslie I did. We successfully put up our tree and hung our pretty ornaments on it! My parents brought some of our “special” ornaments and I was excited to add them to the tree, as well.

One thing I’ve learned since moving to Louisiana is that people in Natchitoches love all things Christmas. The downtown area is covered in Christmas lights and every weekend from the end of November until the New Year there are Christmas events and an impressive firework show (yes, EVERY weekend!).

 The first weekend of December is the BIG Christmas festival and my parents came to venture into the madness with Leslie and myself. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as people said it would be, but perhaps it was because of the rainy weather. There were several parades, a craft show, and of course, a huge fireworks show (coordinated with Christmas music).

An alligator pulling Santa!

Parade!

They're riding IN a duck! So cool.

The Christmas excitement continued with several Christmas parties! Our Sunday School class had a party at a restaurant that we had to ourselves. We played Dirty Santa, chatted amongst ourselves, ate some good food, and ended the night with a game of Cranium. Leslie and I have been very blessed by the sweet people in our class and have made some very good friends J. The members of my counseling skills class also grew very close this semester and our professor had us over to her house for a Christmas party! We snacked and played games and just enjoyed each other’s company. Skills was by far my favorite class! We got to practice all of the counseling skills we were learning on our classmates in class and in the school’s counseling rooms.

I’ve also been blessed to volunteer with a fantastic group of ladies this semester. We had a little Christmas get-together as well (Unfortunately, I didn’t think to take pictures during much of this Christmas excitement). We had a cookie/baked good exchange, played several new-to-me Christmas games, and enjoyed catching up with everyone. There are a bunch of ladies that volunteer, but each of us only works one day a week. That means it’s only during get-togethers like this one, or during meetings that we’re all together. I’m still getting to know everyone, and I’m the youngest one working there, but I really enjoy being around these ladies!

We have quite the Christmas adventure coming up, and I will hopefully have lots of pictures to share at the end of it!