Christmas Girl

I'm a Christmas girl. I'm the one who is always listening to Christmas music when it gets close to the holiday, the one who wants to make desserts for myself and as gifts for our neighbors, the one who LOVES shopping for people (and myself), the one who is always trying to plan activities to make Christmas more memorable. 

This year, I was really aware of the fact that I wanted to do some fun stuff! I didn't want to sit at home and watch movies on Netflix all day, even though I absolutely love doing that. Haha. I wanted to go places! So I asked mom if we could ride to Short Pump and walk around the mall for the day, getting awesome gifts for my brothers and other random people. But because she doesn't like shopping, I figured she'd say no when I asked. Annnddd my guess was correct. She didn't want to deal with of all the holiday shoppers. BUT, instead she came up with this great idea for our family to go to downtown Richmond, eat a nice dinner, and then go to the Botanical Gardens! You're probably thinking, "Botanical Gardens? That's about the lamest thing I've ever heard." Yeah, I was thinking something along those lines when she first said we should go, too. But I'm always up for doing something different so that's just what we did. 

We left our tiny little house around eleven yesterday morning and drove to Richmond. When we arrived, looking out the windows was something I couldn't stop myself from doing. I long to live in the city, even more now than ever. Passing under giant, city stoplights, while mesmerized by the shiny buildings, full of windows, we carefully looked for a parking spot where we couldn't get towed. We then walked a few blocks over to where the streets were made of cobblestone and adorable restaurants and stores lined the strip. This brought back great memories of when I was about five because we used to go to Richmond and watch plays before life got complicated. At the time, I wasn't a huge fan of that, but now, I wish I could go every weekend. So after we picked a restaurant to eat at and downed a delicious meal, we drove over to these Botanical Gardens. I was immediately excited when I saw that everything was adorned with lights. I love Christmas lights. Haha. So from there, the night was fantastic and we walked around this amazing place for a couple hours enjoying ourselves. I took a million pictures and I could not narrow down my selection for this post so you'll just have to deal. :) But I hope you enjoy!! It was just stunning! I definitely recommend going!