Happy New Year’s Eve! Enjoy some of our favorite pictures and memories from 2017!

Llamaland; my parents temporary St. Louis apartment! Highlight of 2017 and definitely going to be a highlight of 2018!!
Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas! Hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season!
Christmas Eve service was very beautiful, only causing me to tear up 7 or so times, ha!
And the service featured my absolute favorite Christmas hymn,
Once in Royal David’s City
Once in royal David’s city,
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby,
In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ, her little Child.
He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Saviour holy.
For He is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us, He grew;
He was little, weak, and helpless,
Tears and smiles, like us He knew;
And He cares when we are sad,
And he shares when we are glad.
And our eyes at last shall see Him,
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child so dear and gentle,
Is our Lord in heaven above:
And He leads His children on,
To the place where He is gone.
And the main event…
SInce the thanksgiving animal photoshoot pics turned out so cute I tried for another photoshoot with all the animals! This time aiming to get Smoochie and I in the shot too!
Smoochie said my expectations for such a shot were “ridiculous”, but he played along; ha! Even though technically we didn’t get everyone in one shot, I’m holding my ground that there is no such thing as “realistic” when it comes to expectations. Especially at Christmastime!! Haha
Dexie has the elfish eyes down in the above shot; ha!
I used some of the photos for a Christmas card and it turned out great. I had never done one of those family photo Christmas cards before (usually we make our own or put a picture in some regular cards) and I was impressed with the ease of the process. I used Walgreens and they were ready for pick up in less than 12 hours! Not sure why I’ve never done this before (probably because I’m always trying to be a rebel and not do “what everyone else is doing” ha!) but this exception was definitely worth it!
In other holiday happenings…
We recently visited the St. Louis Carousel at Faust Park (for a birthday party).
The St. Louis Carousel is an original 1920s carousel from the Dentzel Co. of Philadelphia. The carousel was installed at the St. Louis Highlands Amusement Park in 1929. After a fire in 1963 destroyed the park, the carousel was moved to Sylvan Springs Park and operated there until 1979. The St. Louis County Historic Buildings commission and the Faust Park Foundation raised funds to restore the Carousel, bringing it to Faust Park.
The St. Louis Carousel, with its 60 hand carved horses and four deer, is located within a climate-controlled building inside beautiful Faust Park in West St. Louis County. A not for profit corporation, the Faust Cultural Heritage Foundation, was formed to raise funds and other forms of support for the Carousel’s continual maintenance and restoration. (source)
Because it is indoors, the lighting is not the best. I was hoping for more amazing festive shots of the 90+ year old structure but indoor lighting is tricky.