The night before Boo’s birthday we met Boo & several of his friends at a restaurant named Russells. It was a really good time. I got this picture of Boo with Sherri & Gary’s granddaughter Jade.

After we finished supper we headed to Boo & Shea’s friend Lorton’s house to keep the good times rolling. I got this picture of the three of them there. Fun times.

The Gardens were beautiful in a whole different way at night. We came upon the cranberry bog, which was very cool, and very festive. The Gardens aren’t open during the day while the light show is going on, but the lady we talked to said that in the middle of the day, when the sun hit it, it absolutely glowed. Wouldn’t that be something to see?

Sherri and Meg walking through the lights – magical.

I have wanted to go to this event since the first time I heard about it years ago, and conveniently enough it was still going on when we headed to Murrells Inlet earlier this month to celebrate Boo’s 60th birthday. It was as beautiful as I always knew it would be. Here are a couple of pictures. I took both of these when we first arrived, before it was completely dark, but it was still just beautiful. All of those candles floating in the pond are real – no batteries. Volunteers light them every day before the park opens. And there are 25,000 strands of lights hanging in the trees around the gardens. Just amazing.

I got virtually no pictures on Christmas day. We didn’t even get by to see Addie & family this year – their schedule had changed a little bit, and it just didn’t work out. We did have a delicious snack lunch with Andrew & Jenny and family, and I got this one picture of Adam showing me the Gamecocks t-shirt that Charlie had gotten for him.

And at Lindee & family’s home for supper that evening I just got this picture of the ice cubes :-). In the ones they used that morning Lindee had put some kind of sprinkles in them, or something, so they were dark green just like a Christmas tree, but I still loved the clear ones we had in our iced tea that night 🙂

Last night Jeff & I were honored to host Lesley & Connor’s engagement party – a surprise for Lesley, planned by Elise and Connor. They did a fabulous job of keeping LP in the dark, and it was just so much fun. Got this picture of the happy couple – they were just glowing.

Elise had great decorations planned, and all of the cousins helped put them up when they got here, so it would all be perfect before the newly engaged couple got here. I love this picture of Connor and his dad Rusty looking at the pictures that were on display as part of the celebration. Just such a special evening.

We’re having fun this year going to see Mason and his CHS 9th grade team in action together on the court. I got this picture at his last game. That’s him in the navy.

Last Saturday we were at June’s Christmas dance program. It was so cute and June did a great job, but I did not get a single decent action photo of her. At then end, though, when all of the dancers came out on stage to take a bow, each of the older girls brought out one of the youngest dancers. I thought that was so cute.

We were so proud of our star.

A couple of weeks ago Jeff & I met Lindee & Clara and Andrew & Jenny & Charlie & his girlfriend Lola in York for a concert by Acoustic Syndicate, a band that Jeff & especially Andrew have loved for a long time. It was a fundraiser for the WNC mountains to help them in the efforts to recover from Hurricane Helene, and the show as just great. The sun was so bright I couldn’t really tell what I was getting a picture of, but here is what I got when I pointed the camera toward the stage :-).

Lindee & Clara had left by the time I took this picture, but did get this one of the Jeff & Andrew, along with some friends, having a great afternoon.

As is our tradition, my extended family gathered to celebrate Christmas on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and as often happens, it was held at our church. We always have a time when everyone can share their talents if they so choose, and this year June showed us the turns she had been working on so hard at dance. Of course none of the pictures that I tried to take when she was actually turning turned out, so I just have this one of her explaining the turns to us. Ha.

Family photo on the stairs. I especially wanted to get this one with the tree this year, since Addie & Lee single handedly put the tree up and decorated it. They were such good helpers 🙂