Triangle Christmas Tree Challenge

We drove to Durham one evening to check out the trees in this year's Triangle Christmas Tree Challenge. (Side note: Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill are sometimes referred to as The Research Triangle, or just "The Triangle.") Nonprofits decorate trees for a prize and anyone can vote for their favorites. There were some very interesting decorations. It was a rainy evening but cleared up long enough for us to walk through the trees.

The Salvation Army decorated this tree to support their project which brings awareness to human trafficking in North Carolina. It had barbies and money hanging all over it (each barbie represented a victim). Interesting choice. Didn't feel super Christmassy though.

And this cute kid!

Our first visitors!

We were so excited to have our friends the Littles stop by for a visit a few days before Christmas. They were driving down to Florida to visit family and we were thrilled they made our house an overnight pit stop. The kids were counting down the days until their arrival and were anxiously watching out the window all afternoon the day they arrived. The kids had fun playing out in the woods until it was too dark and then continued their shenanigans inside until we finally forced them to go to sleep. We enjoyed a big, leisurely breakfast in the morning and then went to church together before they continued their journey south. The kids hated to say goodbye, but thankfully they stopped again on their return trip (more on that later).

After the dark drove them inside, the girls had fun doing stamps in our big empty dining room (which will soon be converted to an art room!!). Someday we'll have more chairs. My favorite part of the evening was listening to all of them belting Christmas carols at the top of their lungs. Nice acoustics in that big empty room.

Success on their lizard hunt in the attic. 

Back to games and crafts in the morning.

Such cute and sweet friends! The younger four didn't make it into this photo, but Oliver and Calvin had fun together and Simon and Charlotte took all the chaos in stride.

gingerbread house.

We decorated a gingerbread house one night. As usual, the girls were really into the design and placement of candy. Simon really wanted to be in on the action. Oliver really did not want Simon to be in on the action.

Nativities.

Our church does an annual Nativity display with over 900 nativities from around the world. We were able to check it out one evening and it was pretty amazing. They also have various musical groups from the community perform as well as a live nativity and the whole event ends with a Messiah sing-in.

They put lights under the table cloths which looked really neat. The kids' favorite was a huge nativity made entirely out of legos. They all loved examining each nativity but Oliver's excitement and curiosity made me a bit nervous. I don't know how many times I had to repeat "don't touch."

There was also a room for the children where they could do various activities and dress up in nativity costumes. The kids really loved dressing up.

Dueling Marys.

Christmas at the Capitol

We headed to the North Carolina State Capitol on a rainy afternoon to check out the Christmas decor and listen to a choir sing. The choir sounded beautiful with the acoustics in the rotunda. One thing we are definitely enjoying here is the ease of getting around and the ample free parking that is always available downtown.

Christmas hayride.

We drove out to Boyette Farms one night for "Lights on the Neuse" which is a big Christmas light display seen while on a hayride. The kids loved the hayride. Oliver was really into all of the light displays and it was fun to see his excitement. It was also fun to explore a new place after years of doing the same Christmas activities in D.C. 

Excited kids in line for the hayride.

They also had a "3D Christmas barn" which was basically a maze through a barn that was covered with Christmas murals you could look at in 3D. Interesting.

And we finished up the evening with hot chocolate and marshmallows around their bonfire.