Christmas Fun: Part Two

The Christmas fun continued this past week - on Monday evening we went to Rosemont Plantation for Christmas at Rosemont. I'm telling you, there are so many plantations around here - it's amazing. I'm such a history nerd and being able to wander through all these old houses and take in the history, well I'm just in heaven. Rosemont was no exception. The house is absolutely beautiful and has SO much history.

It was the home of one of one of Virginia's most prolific governors - Harry T. Byrd - and while he lived in the house he entertained politicians, heads of state and even movie stars. There are twelve (I think) rooms in the house and each one is named for the person that stayed there. Some of the rooms are: The Roosevelt Room, the Churchill Room, the Lindbergh Room, the Nixon Room, the Kennedy Room, the Eisenhower Room and the Einstein Room. I'm pretty sure that I've left someone out but oh well. The Byrds also entertained the likes of John Wayne and Elizabeth Taylor...so see, so much history! It's now a major wedding venue here in the area and does tours on a pretty routine basis. It also hosts teas and serves as a bed and breakfast!

The Foyer of Rosemont - absolutely beautiful.

All of the decorations were absolutely beautiful!

The lounge (now a bar & check-in spot for guests) was my favorite - the wood molding was beautiful!

The tree in the front parlor where tea is held....

The Rosemont Room - can you guess why it's called that/painted that color?

So many gorgeous trees!

Making my way to the second floor & all the bedrooms!

Peering out to the front lawn from a second floor balcony!

One of the amazing hand carved mirrors in one of the bathrooms - so amazing.

You're going to shut me in this safe with the wine? Okay...sure. :)

The tree in the barn/carriage house. Where we ended our night with cider & cookies.

Thursday night was filled with more Christmas fun - we had our "framily" over for supper and present exchanging. Our framily (that's a word I coined myself - they're our friend family) is made up of our friend Jennie and her son Jimmy and our friends Doug and Jen and their daughters Emily and Amelia. My parents consider Jimmy, Emily and Amelia their adopted grandkids and so I suppose that makes them my nieces and nephew - and that's perfectly fine with me because I love them to pieces! I'm also really good friends with Jennie, Jen and Doug since they are my age!

So - we had delicious pizza (have y'all had pretzel pizza from Little Ceasers? If not, you need to get on that because it is delicious!) and then we all swapped presents. Kids always make opening presents more fun and while Jimmy and Emily were hilarious; the funniest one to watch was Amelia. It's her first Christmas and she's not even six months old but she was pretty sure of what to do with her presents - she was trying so hard to tear into them. So funny!

Presents are the best!

Amelia says "are these for me??" 

Jimmy got a Smurf game from Emily!

Emily got a Frozen game from Jimmy!

I gave the kids ornaments because...well, if you know where I've been working this holiday season then you know why I got them ornaments. If you don't know where I've been working, don't worry. I might write a tell-all one day, ha-ha!

I managed to snag an Olaf for Emily...

And it was a big hit!

Amelia isn't sure if she's interested in opening her present....

On the Night You Were Born - I think she liked it!

Jimmy got Hiccup & Toothless because we saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 together! It was a hit!

Jimmy wearing his Nintendo hoodie that my parents gave him...I don't know very much about boy things...

Jennie was maybe a little too excited about her New Kids on the Block CD & book...hahaha!

Watson just chilling out in his Christmas pajamas!

So - there is part two of the Christmas fun. And you guys, brace yourself because there is a part three. You can't even handle the excitement...I know, right? Less than 24 hours! :)