Christmas Fun: Part Three

Well - as promised, here we are - part three of the Christmas Fun posts. This one has even more fun because it has the added bonus of having Lindsey added into the mix. I absolutely love my little sister and I might have been more excited about her coming home for two weeks than about the whole other Christmas business itself, ha-ha! What can I say - my little sister is my best friend and I am so glad that I got to experience these Christmas activities with her! And of course, my sweet parents, ha-ha!

I worked bright and early on Saturday morning but that left the whole afternoon and evening open to do things. As soon as I got home from work, I changed and we went about fifteen minutes up the road to Sky Meadows State Park to tour the Mt. Bleak-Skye Farm there that had each room set up as Christmas through the years. There weren't too many people around, so we had our own personal tour and got to learn about the house and the people that lived there, as well as seeing some typical Christmas decorations for all different time periods.

The Mt. Bleak-Skye Farm - all decorated for Christmas!

The table set for Christmas dinner in the dining room.

The parlor - check out all those presents!

Just a quick peek at the poinsettias in the parlor!

There was mistletoe - and who can resist a quick peck?

Up the stairs we go....

Talk about a room with a view - so lovely to look at these mountains each day!

Out in the backyard - again, I love this view.

A tree from the late 1800's - living on the edge with those candles on the tree....

A hiding spot in the attic for Mosby's Rangers...this is some Civil War era business right here...

The view from the backyard...again...because it's pretty.

Trying to take a picture of the house & of course this nut just jumps into the frame...

The other little Christmas adventure we went on was this past Sunday night and we went to Long Branch's annual Christmas reception - it has a theme each year and this year was no exception; the theme was Christmas on the Homefront, a 1940's Christmas. Lindsey and I had big plans to fix our hair in the traditional style of the 1940's - victory rolls. I got an extra thirty minutes of work added onto my schedule, so I ended up just meeting the family at Long Branch...sadly, that meant I had no victory rolls, but Lindsey's hair looked awesome!

Dad & Lindsey in their 1940's best!

Posing with one of the decorated mantles in the house - so gorgeous!

A wee tree with bubble lights in the horse room.

Some decorations & delicious food in the dining room!

The mantle in the parlor - this might have been my favorite of all the mantles.

Our book club meets once a month at Long Branch and so we'd seen the start of the decorations earlier in the week but the finished product was so amazing; the place looked gorgeous. There were even two WWII era jeeps parked on the front lawn and delightful big band Christmas music swelling through the house. The two girls that run the book club (and also pretty much run Long Branch) were both dressed perfectly to the era and I wish I'd thought to get a picture with the two of them - Lizzie and Cassie looked awesome and were perfects hosts. I'm so glad when they mentioned the reception almost two months ago I told Mom I wanted to go - it was such a neat experience and the night ended in the coolest (both literally and figuratively) way possible - we got a ride around the property in a restored WWII jeep! Lindsey even provided some war sound effects to make the ride more authentic!

Having a little Chardonnay in the awesome Long Branch stemware!

Christmas in the 1940's!

A look at the foyer - the entrance to the house looked amazing.

Lindsey looked amazing too - like she'd stepped right out of the pages of a history book!

Looking up...up....up into the center of the house.

The mantle in the upstairs bedroom - I love all the greenery!

Of course, the mantle in the Horse Room. I love it!

Peeking in the front windows, all decorated up. 

We salute you!

The entrance to the house - it looked amazing!

The jeep we got to take a ride in - it was so cool!

Good-bye Long Branch - thanks for the awesome evening!

So - there you have it! Some of the best things we did over the days counting down to Christmas. I hope you've had a wonderful time counting down to Christmas and I hope you have the merriest of them all!