Country Christmas weekend

We spent our long weekend going to Country Christmas craft fairs - I loved it, the kids hated it, and Matt tolerated it. I actually think Matt and the kids had a good time, even though they didn't really want to let on. On Friday Matt had to work so I took the kids just down the street to the Nevada County Fairgrounds for the Country Christmas Craft Faire. It was super crowded and super cute! Our fun day...

They had carolers dressed up in old fashioned clothes, loved it!

Cute decorations everywhere!


Christian and I at the Sweet shop. Uh, the Sweet tent.


They had a gingerbread house contest and we saw the most beautiful, elaborate gingerbread houses I've ever seen! They were so cool that I took pictures to share.


And another one.


Addison thoroughly enjoyed looking at them.


One more.


I know I took a lot of pictures of the gingerbread houses, but they were so cute!


Christian found a big candy cane and posed for his mama like the sweetie he is!


They roasted chestnuts over an open fire and gave them away FREE! I love free stuff!


Here I am burning my hand trying to get a free chestnut. The nice man in the top hat finally had mercy on me and came and helped me, after just a little bit of heckling. PS - Lexi told me the guy in the shades was totally checking me out! :)


I didn't know chestnuts were soft and yellow. And that they don't taste very good. Oh well, at least now every time we sing the song I can point out that I have tried chestnuts roasted on an open fire. :) Small things make me happy!


We also checked out a cool old graveyard. It's a tiny little thing with lots of interesting old headstones. A lot of them are lopsided, Haunted Mansion style. It was very interesting to walk around.





Then on Saturday we drove an hour up to Christmas at Gold Trader Flat. It's a cute little "town" that is completely old fashioned. They've got shops and dirt roads and boardwalks. They do fun events all year so we're definitely planning a return trip. Or I should probably say that I am definitely planning a return trip. :)


Here is Matt talking to a journalist for the Democrat Appeal newspaper. Then he ended up quoting me! That made me feel special because I was the only one to not be in the newspaper in Clovis! So it's only fair that I should be the first to be in the paper here, right? You know that country song Everybody dies famous in a small town, well it's true. Anyways, some pics of our Saturday.







Here we are, not with Santa Claus as I was told, but with Father Christmas.


I thought it was so cute that lots of people were dressed up old fashioned so I asked this lady to take a picture with me. I'm sure she thought I was crazy! Oh well.


I've been into outhouses lately (I'm thinking of doing a bathroom all outhouses) so here I am testing this one out.


And here is Christian getting ready for a bath. Aren't we funny?! I was kinda surprised he was willing to pose for this one. He probably just wanted to show off his little six-pack!


That night, our little town of Penn Valley hosted a Cowboy Christmas. I know, so many cute Christmas things, I could hardly stand it! I didn't take too many pictures there because it was already dark and my camera doesn't do well at night. I wonder if I could learn how to take better pictures in the dark. Hmmm, any suggestions? Anyways, that was very cute too, and they gave free hamburgers, hot dogs, drinks, AND each child that got their FREE picture with Santa got a gift! Alexis got a Barbie (which she promptly gave to a little girl that didn't get a picture with Santa), Christian got a Spiderman (which he played with immediately), and Addie got a stuffed Rudolph (which she quickly made out with).


Santa pulled up in this wagon. They also gave free wagon rides but no one wanted to wait in line. No one except me. :( I got over it quickly. :)


This picture was the worst, but it's the only one I got of all three of the kids with Santa. Addison was fascinated by Santa! So different from Alexis at that age, who screamed bloody murder!


We had a fun, busy family weekend and I can't wait for the next one!