Carriage Ride

Carys has been begging for a few years now to take a horse-drawn carriage ride around downtown Ocala.  These are only available around Christmas each year.  This year I decided to bite the bullet and see what it cost.  The private 30-minute tours are normally $90 a couple.  We had a family of six.  She gave me a great deal and only charge me $135 for everyone.

I made the reservation for Christmas Eve between services and our regular Chinese buffet meal.  However, it rained that night (first time in years that I can remember it raining on Christmas Eve), and they cancelled.

We rescheduled for Saturday evening and told the kids we were going downtown to look at the lights on the square.  The big "kids" went along, but I don't think they were too thrilled.  Carys started up the begging to go ride the carriage.

When I told her that was what we were actually going to do, I think she was too stunned for words.

We were the last group of the evening.  They were running about 30 minutes late, so she actually gave us closer to a 45-minute tour.  The weather was fantastic!  Not too hot and not too cold.

Chase and Greg played the "I'm going to take my picture/no don't take my picture" game.

Carys' favorite part was petting the horse at the end.  Love that girl!

Christmas Day

I think we managed to rouse everyone by 9am on Christmas morning.  We began as usual with my homemade cinnamon rolls. 

 

We finished Jotham's Journey.  This is our 4th time through, I think, though it's really Carys' first time.  We took a several-year break from it after the big kids had done it three times!  Then we opened presents.

I love the facial expressions in all three of the above photos!

Chase gave Landon this shirt.

Carys wanted a fancy doll.  We chose this My Twinn doll because it was $50 less than an American Girl doll.  It's supposed to look like Carys.  She thought it looked creepy!  LOL!

She decided to keep it.  Whew!

I have no idea what's with all the bunny ears in the pictures this year!  (Chase gave Carys this hat because it looks like Margo's in Despicable Me and has Elsa on it.  That's what you call a win-win.)

Chase does not understand the cans of pumpkin in her gift.  It was just to weight it down and throw her off the trail. :)

Hey, look!  I was actually there (though I hate this picture!).

Landon gave Carys this horse which her doll (Pepper) can actually ride.

Gerren gave Carys these Elsa and Anna dolls, but Landon and Chase had a great time making them say stupid stuff to each other. 

Everyone enjoyed looking at Grandma Epie's calendar which was full of neat old pictures.

We had a Honey Baked Ham again this year.  I know it's not original, but we've enjoyed it the last two years.  We have homemade rolls and baked potatoes or baked sweet potatoes and green beans.  Then we went to the movies.  We decided to see Night at the Museum 3.  Landon didn't think he could survive another episode of The Hobbit with all the crazy variations from the book.  Plus, we wanted to see something that didn't depend heavily on previous movies (like the Hunger Games movies as well as the Hobbit movies) since Grandma was with us and wouldn't have seen them.  We thought it was good enough.

Then back at home we had dessert.  This year's cheesecake was Deluxe Chip Cheesecake.  I think I've only made it one other time.  No one could remember it, but everyone loved it.  In fact, Chase thinks it's her favorite.

Finally, we opened stockings.  I know, I know.  It's rather backwards.  But we used to always forget to do stockings, and it just became a habit to do it last.

 

 I think the kids almost like opening their stockings more than their gifts to see what kind of crazy stuff I came up with to put in them that year.  I, however, do NOT like shopping for stocking stuffers.

  It was a great day!

December

 I wanted to blog December today, but I am so tired.  This is going to be quick.

On December 9, we went back to the orthodontist to pick up Carys' headgear.  She has to wear this 12-14 hours a day (we easily do this overnight) for 6-18 months.  The length of time depends on how it goes.  She is doing this to make more room in her mouth for her adult teeth.

 

December 13 was our annual Meahl Family Christmas event.  This year we went to see a Christmas display at the Appleton Museum (there was much less to it than I expected!) and out to eat afterward at The Braised Onion.  Chase thought the food was terrible - too bland.  The rest of us liked it.  It was comfort food.

On December 16, we celebrated my (dare I say it?) 52nd birthday.  The girls, Greg, and I went to eat at a place that was new to us (I'm determined to do more of that this year) called Brooklyn's Backyard.  We really liked it, and we happened to be there on the night Santa and Mrs. Claus were dropping by.  The kids all got a free slice of cheese pizza, so Carys' dinner was free.

 

 

On December 17, we picked up my mom (Grandma Epie) from the St. Pete/Clearwater Airport for a month-long visit.  After we got her, we went to the Brittania Arms to eat.  Funny enough, a friend of mine from Illinois recommended this place as a good authentic British pub.  It was in a strip center, but we all really enjoyed the food.

On December 19, I went to a lunch with the retired teachers from Inverness Middle School (well, I sort of retired before Landon was born).  While I was gone, the girls made a gingerbread house.

They also had fun all month playing all kinds of games including Go Fish.

That's enough for one blog post.  I'll put Christmas in a separate post.  :)