Franklin Dickens Festival

 Ever year the city of Franklin, TN has a street festival in honor of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

I read about it this summer and I've been looking forward to it and counting the months, weeks and days to it since then.

FINALLY, this weekend was the weekend to get bundled up and wander the historic streets of downtown Franklin in search of Father Christmas, Tiny Tim, Scrooge, roasted chestnuts and apple cider.

(Rosie and her Nana are like two peas in a pod, bundled up and ready to be festive)

 The day did not disappoint. People of all ages we dressed up in costumes from the 1800's. Some were actors with specific rolls to play, like Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the ghosts, and others were just people who decided to get into the spirit of things and dress up.

There were street performers all over the place. I really liked this girl who played and sang songs from the 1800's.  There was also a group of kids who did scenes from Oliver, as well as a stage where an Irish Dance School really captivated Rosie's attention.

Besides street performers there was lots of great food, including hot chocolate, chestnuts, apple cider and meat on a stick. And to top it all off there were booths and booths of artisans and crafts people selling unique Christmas gifts.

There was also a horse drawn carriage that I was very excited about.  Every time the carriage stopped to pick up and drop off passengers this dog would climb out and stand on the horse. It was very funny and very cute.

Even the Police officers on duty got into the spirit of things and were dressed in Victorian inspired uniforms. 

AND we met Father Christmas! He was very nice and actually got Rosie to talk to him and smile at him.

Here's a random family that decided to come dressed up. Aren't they cute!  

We also found a stand that was selling Sugar Plums!  We each had one and yes.... they've been dancing in my dreams ever since. Even Rosie liked them. 

Rosie is such a cool baby in her sunglasses. She loves wearing them.
She also really loves to watch people dance. Here she's mesmerized by all the dickens characters dancing 300 year old dances in the street.

 Our favorite part of the whole day was when all the Dickens Characters got together in the street and danced traditional dances for the 1800's. It was so much fun to watch them.  Even Rosie couldn't take her eyes off them.  You can even see the Ghost of Christmas Past (in the white dress) dancing with The Ghost of Christmas Present. (the Ghost of Christmas yet to come isn't much of a dancer apparently.)
It made me want to learn how to dance all those all dances... and dress up as a Dickens character.

It was a wonderful day with yummy food and fun things to look at. A lot of the churches had performances in them too but there was so much to see we couldn't do it all in one day. With a toddler and a pregnant lady in tow we were pretty tired and had to go home to sleep. But I'm very much looking forward to going again next year, and hopefully next year we can go both days of the festival and attend the Christmas All Sing in the town square.

For information about next years event and other Festivals check out www.historicfranklin.com

It's Starting to look a lot like Christmas!

 Happy 40 Days till Christmas!!

Our week has been fun. First Rudolph Rosie came to see us.

I started getting the Christmas decorations out at the beginning of the week. I wanted to spread it out instead of trying to do it all at once.

Rosie thought it was great fun when she discovered the Christmas hats in one of the boxes and went and found her fake nose. She puts them on and laughs and laughs.


She really loves it when Nana puts on the nose and hat... but you won't see a picture of that.

 We also went to a Christmas craft fair at the local Catholic Church and got some wonderful had made decorations. We also picked up some extra lights at the store on the way home.

I've been buying lights since before Halloween so I think we MIGHT have enough this year. We'll see.

Then today after Church William and my mom put the lights on the Christmas tree.  After nap time we had dinner and made cookies and home made hot chocolate and then put all the ornaments on the tree.  

Rosie was such a good little decorator.

William decided that Christmas was way more fun with kids. I think he might be right.

It was so much fun to see Rosie excited about every little thing we took out of the boxes. About the lights. About the Tree in the HOUSE. About putting things on the tree and even about the Santa figurine that my mom put out. She now has all her toys around Santa... who she calls "Daddy" and she likes give him kisses.

Yep. Christmas is pretty dang fun with a little one. 

Rosie's Special Day -- Happy Birthday little one

Rosie's Birthday was such a wonderful and special day. I have WAY too many pictures of it, but she is just so cute it's so hard to post just a few.

She is also very very loved and had gifts coming from all over the world. Literally. she got gifts from friends in China, Venezuela and several states in the US.

We started our day with tea and pancakes and of course a present or two. Rosie was very excited when she saw her big pile of gifts, but I was so proud of her that she just wanted to open one at a time and play with it for a few hours before moving on to the next one.

Since it was Rosie's Special Day she got to pick all the things we did that day. Of course that meant a dance party. So we put on our dancing shoes and all danced in the living room to Christmas music.

Also, Rosie loves Rainbows and colors so we tried to incorporate as much color into our day as we could. That is the reason for Rosie's extra special rainbow outfit and her sparkly red dancing shoes.

After dancing for a good long time Rosie wanted to go out for a walk. Going for walks is Rosie's favorite thing.  She loves being outside, especially now that the weather isn't so hot.

We also decided to show her how to play in the Autumn leaves. She thought jumping in the pile of leaves that William made was great fun.

I know it's a lot of pictures... but doesn't she just have the greatest smile?!

Rosie's favorite place to walk is out in the back pasture, far away from the house. She likes to follow the goats and dogs out there and check on every one.

Rosie giving her little Andy a kiss. He got too tired on our long walk and William had to carry him home. William is so nice.

Of course our new baby goats need kisses and cuddles too.
Rosie loves playing outside with her goats. She likes to talk to them and pet them and make sure they are all doing well. She's such a good goat girl.

Here are a few pictures of Rosie opening her gifts. As I mentioned before, it took us ALL DAY to open her gifts. She really enjoyed taking time with each one. Each one was very special to her.

We had to read each book she got a couple times before she could move on to any thing else. Here she got Corduroy from her Grandma in Truckee.

oh yeah. and we had cupcakes for lunch.

another gift....

 

It's a hat! Rosie loves hats.

Opening more gifts...

And another stylish hat!

Hanging out with our rainbow socks...

And reading the book about Home Birth that our friend Diana sent us. Rosie really likes this book. Here she's pointing out the mama's belly and telling us how it's going to "open" and then an "egg" will come, then the baby is born. Rosie is so smart. She calls this her "boobie book."

Our friend Fanny, in China, sent Rosie some pretty princess things...

 And William made us a very special dinner of Rainbow Clam Spaghetti.

 Rosie loves pasta, and she likes clams, and since we were doing a rainbow themed day we thought this would be fun. I got the idea from Rosie's Godmother, Julie.  It turned out really really well. It was super tasty and the colors looked great. They didn't turn out very well in the picture, but in person they were great.

As you can see Rosie loved them very much. She especially loved the pink noodles and giggled every time she took a bite.

Since it was a special day we had Sparkling Apple Cider and Rosie got to use an extra special glass for it.

Then it was cake time!

We sang Happy Birthday twice because Rosie thought it was so much fun to all sing together ....

Then she blew out both of her candles all by her self. 

I made a Rainbow cake of course. Rosie had fun telling us what color each layer was.

I was very happy with how well it turned out and that it didn't fall apart or fall over or anything.

Then it was time for some pre-bed time silliness with dancing, chasing through the house, wearing of hats and of course a few cartoons.

 It was the most wonderful Birthday celebration I think I've ever participated in. We all had fun all day long. It helped that we had an almost endless flow of presents and cake.  Rosie was such a good girl all day long and smiled all day.

 

We had so much fun opening her gifts all day long that we even ran out of time and had to wait till the next day to open the last one.

Rosie didn't mind at all though. She got a little dolly wagon house with two little dolls and a horse. She played with it all day long and still carries the dollies around the house with her. Some times she even nurses them, takes them to the potty and wraps them up in her blankie for a nap. She's such a good little mama.

I love that she can be both girly and rough and tumble dirty at the same time.

So that was our super wonderful Birthday Celebration with our little Angel. Thank you everyone for making it so wonderful and for all your love and gifts and cards you sent. Rosie LOVES cards and keeps some of them in her bed where looks at them in the evenings. Others she keeps on the kitchen table where she can tell us what colors they are while we eat breakfast. 

Every day she is more and more fun to be around.

Also, thank you William for all these wonderful pictures you took of Rosie's special day. (check out his iPhone pics on the right for more awesome photos)