wil and kris (and gracie and ava)

with little time to spare between laura’s flight in and flight out, we knew we had to make the most of our time in the current hometown of me and wil. this is my fourth holiday season in franklin, and the first time i was in town or not busy with finals to be able to go to the dickens christmas festival along main street.

unlike any other main street festival i’ve been to, the day was a blast. meeting up with cassie and mike again (man, we just can’t ditch them!), the four of us (wil had to work and serve all the rest of the dicken-sonian characters) made our way through the bustling streets of an old victorian themed franklin. father christmas walked the sidewalks, different old time street musicians played on every corner, and hundreds of citizens dressed in period costumes, landing us right in the middle of a dickens novel.
happy to be mentally done with school and ready for holiday cheer we excitedly tried to see, hear and taste everything we could. some things i was excited to experience-
roasted chestnuts: due to the roasting, you basically peel off the shell to a soft, almost meaty center. i’d say yes to having a few more here or there.

sugar plums: i always thought these were only in the imagination of the dreaming children in ‘the night before christmas’ but alas! they are real! and not very good. maybe i didn’t like the plum…maybe it was the goopy sugary stuff on the outside. blech.

eddie: the largest dog i have ever seen, weighing in at 240 lbs! who knows why this person decided to bring their monster dog to this, except for the attention, but who cares! i thought it was a lion as we approached the huddle…this dog is the reason why i was always scared of the movie ‘the sandlot’ till i was about 16. he was really sweet when you got up to pet him though.

scrooge: how could you go to a dickens festival without saying hello to scrooge? this was laura’s main goal of the day…it’s obvious that it wasn’t too hard to get a good shot of her with him as she girlishly giggled the whole time he he kept saying ‘bah humbug’ to her.

with laura’s flight about to take off, we took a quick nap, sad goodbye to wil at work and headed to the airport. it was a very quick but full weekend and i loved sharing it with such a dear friend!

* don’t miss the post below…although in the same weekend i felt like splitting the events up, so the one below is actually from the night before.

upon the end of my project (which i am still meaning to take pictures of and post) we had our “studio in review” at the factory on friday night. although i was worried it might be awkward, uncomfortably standing in front of my boards, but it ended up being a nice, low key wine and cheese evening, mingling around one another’s boards and celebrating the end of the semester.

it was wonderful seeing wil show up with laura at his side…introducing her to all the important people in my life, showing her my makeshift classroom space and giggling with her and my local friends combined.

^ all the girls from work…from left to right: carolyn, my boss, isabella, her daughter and our afternoon cheerleader, cass, me, kim, and amy.
fortunately, although the event ended around 8, the three of us took our rumbly tummies to a mexican restaurant for some good food, drinks and catching up on lost time. and to top the night off, cassie and mike joined us for some late night train…i don’t know how well of a game it really was, since we were all so tired- we basically just deliriously shuffled the tiles around the table while laughing at what sound effects we could make each turn. thanks mike…