Nativity Festival, ACC Football, Botanical Garden Lights, Wells Party ~ December 1st - 14th 2014

Many prayers and hands helped to plan and carry out the Charlotte Nativity Festival this year.  I took many pictures to document the event and to be able to have them available for reference next year.

My mom and dad came out a few days before the festival to help out with the kids while I was busy decorating and at the actual event.  Such a huge blessing to have them here in Charlotte. 

100 poinsettias bought by members of the church that were used to decorate the tables.  They picked them up along with their nativities after the event was over. 

Hundreds of place cards with country names on them are ready to be placed by nativity sets from all over the world. Below we filled mason jars with rocks then placed a votive in each jar.  They will help to guide the cars into the parking lot. 

This cowboy nativity was my favorite.  I plan to order on for myself next year!

We made a scavenger hunt for the kids to do while wandering around the nativities.

Aaron had his Christmas choir concert on the first night of the nativity festival.  He did a great job and I was able to leave the festival to watch him since I had so much support from other church members.  

We had many church member and community choirs and instrumentals, but the Providence High School choirs were amazing and brought in so many parents with them that the chapel and nativity were completely filled.  Their songs were so well done and just beautiful. I also loved the missionary choir because who doesn't love the missionaries!

I was very pleased with how everything came together in the end.  Hundreds of people came and hopefully enjoyed the beautiful atmosphere we tried to create to honor the birth of Jesus Christ.

One night Aaron brought the family along with our adopted grandma Shirley. AJ counted the nativity sets and Audrey did the scavenger hunt with Grandma. 

Some friends made this nativity set and ladies from church collected or made nativity costumes for the family nativity room.  Families picked out costumes and a host took a pictures with their phones.

The kids could also make a simple craft while waiting for their turn to get a picture.

Aaron took AJ and Grandpa to an ACC football game at the Panthers stadium.  It was cold but fun!

Aaron climbed to the very top of the bleachers just so he could be as high as possible.

Aaron loves the Duke Energy Center lights.

McAdenville "city of lights" is a little town where the main drive has all the houses and businesses decorated in lights.  We drove through and loved it.  Grandma and Grandpa were especially impressed.  We stopped and got hot chocolate at the fire station which made AJ especially happy. These pictures don't do justice to how they looked in real life.

The Hembstead women's club meets once a month.  This month we planned a gift exchange and asked the ladies to donate a gift.  We had a great time, even though I ended up with some extra large Santa Clause pjs. Most of the gifts were really nice.

While Mom and Dad were in town they wanted to see Kelsey. We drove to Winston-Salem where she is attending art school and took her to lunch. 

One cold night we visited a botanical garden with beautiful decorations and outdoor lights. Seeing Santa was especially exciting for the kids.  We all were amazed at how stunning the lights outside were. Many fun memories were made this night.

Our family attended Wells Fargo's annual Christmas party.  Food, Santa, a balloon man, and a visit to daddy's office. This is the 4th year we have participated in this fun tradition.

AJ loves to come here with Aaron if he ever has to work on a Saturday or Sunday.
Audrey loves to draw on daddy's board and use all his markers.

We took Grandma and Grandpa to a delicious French bakery and got way to many goodies to eat.

We went to the park beside the Knight's baseball field uptown to walk around see the Christmas decorations. We also went to the Discovery Place and saw a movie on the IMAX screen. A first time for all of us although I'm not sure Grandpa or Aaron stayed awake for the whole show.

We had our 2nd annual cousins Christmas gift exchange with the Clowards.  I love the expressions of the boys as they opened their gifts.  Adele made the cutest aprons for the girls and just everyone being together brought the most joy!