Oh yeah, Christmas

In true Abingdon fashion, Christmas began the Friday before Thanksgiving, when the town's Christmas parade was held. It didn't stop for us until we took our tree down three days ago. So we got nearly two months of Christmassy goodness, which in my mind, has no downside. You can not have too much Christmas. That's final.

Highlights:

Driving through the light display at Bristol Motor Speedway, which actually involved driving on the track! Whoa! Even in my anti-Nascar little world, this was pretty cool. That curve was crazy steep! Besides, all this time, I've actually been a devoted consumer of the Official Cheese-Filled Snack of Nascar, so I guess it was just a matter of time before I caved and went to visit the place.

These were the best pictures I could get:



While we're at it, here's some more blurry twinkly-light pictures, from Richmond:




And a house in Brian's hometown with way more lights than any of its neighbors that still managed to look very classy:



Also in Richmond, we took a really nice hike in a nearby state park. We forgot to bring a carrier, but looked like the trail was paved the whole way.


It wasn't. Lea ended up getting carried Cleopatra-style in her stroller for a good portion of the two mile loop.


We saw something cool, especially considering we were hiking on the Beaver Dam Lake Trail:





We stayed in Virginia through Christmas day, celebrating that morning with the Johns family until we headed north to spend some time with Clan Campbell. Unfortunately, something went terribly wrong with my camera either that day or the next, and almost every picture came out looking foggy, so our documentation of actual Christmas is pretty limited. But, I'll leave you with these, and hope the cuteness comes through despite the weird haze:






Contemplating the meaninglessness of the last game of the season...