Dickens of a Christmas

After Thanksgiving every year, downtown McKinney (about 20 minutes north of us) hosts its "Dickens of a Christmas" event. All the shop owners dress in period costumes, street vendors sell everything from popcorn and funnel cake to homemade stationary and art, snow is blown off the courthouse a few times a night, and carolers sing. The stores (oh, there are so many wonderful ones!) share holiday window displays and the occasional sale with the customers. The day dawned bright and gorgeous outside, the temperature somewhere in the low-50s--perfect to be bundled up and cozy, yet not freezing. We browsed the shops (Shel, found the best antique/vintage store you will love, and Kate, some wonderful baby boutiques!), watched a puppet show (Maggie was enraptured and sat through the whole thing!), and enjoyed experiencing this delightful downtown. If you live in the area, you *must* go next year and make it a holiday tradition. I'm so glad we went on Friday because it has been raining ALL weekend long. We've been indoors, baking, and putting up Christmas decor. I think the house is finally coming together and I hope to post pics next week, and in light of SCW's London post, I will give you a "visual tour" of the home with commentary.

Maggie absolutely loved the puppet show!

Here she is standing, unassisted. She still prefers to cruise the house, but just the weekend has taken more steps on her own than in many weeks. We must be getting close!

One of the puppets.

This puppet sang "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas;" it was very cute!

I know this picture is not very clear, but I couldn't get a good shot (those windows and their reflections can be tricky!). But, I had to post this because it was so cute. These two kiddos were dressed up, and sitting in a window display, waiting by a table of cookie and milk for Santa.