a christmas visit to lexington with my mom, little bunners, and grandmother!

on monday of last week, [a week ago, already!?] my two little bunnies, my mom and i headed off on our holiday jaunt up to lexington to see my grandmother, celebrate with her at her nursing home’s annual christmas party, and partake in some of our fav traditions and festivities!!

i look so forward to doing this every year, even though our visits there in this most recent decade of my life just look ooooh sooooo different from when i was growing up! each time we go, of course, i can’t help but think about how i would give anything to walk through the door of my grandmother’s old house, take in the familiar, comforting smells, give her a big, long squeeze [not to mention, upright! we used to do the kind where you don’t let go for a long time and you rock back and forth together and then laugh that you’re still not letting go!], bask around her perfect christmas tree and flawlessly wrapped gifts, and lounge happily with my babies there… ugh, i can literally feel it!

but… life is life, right!! we still love to savor it. 🙂 my mom is really good at making things fun, too, so it’s wonderful to get that time with her!! and we all love getting to visit all the christmas lights and holiday activities at the horse park, do some shopping because their target and anthro are like riiiight there ;), enjoy a hotel getaway… and of course, the whole point is that it’s aaalways good to be with our sweet bettye-mom!

we arrived just in time to head over and see the christmas lights at the kentucky horse park!!

ooh, my little monkey keeps me laughing and keeps me on my toes!

we have a love language of trains in our family… 

rocco was especially excited to ride this cute little one!!

must… touch… everything!!

petting zoos are always a hit… still, i always think, oh, those poor animals!  hopefully they’re happy with all those treats they get, right? ps. rocco ate one of those silly, unsanitized carrot slices before i even realized. ahhh!

the camels are my fav!! and they feel so christmassy. weeee three kiiiings…

i LOVE this so much more than i can say!!  madd has come so far from her first impromptu santa visit, and oh, my baby rocco… naturally, he had to have his shining moment!

my snazzy bettye-mom just loooves to get her hands on the babies!

if you ask maddalena her fav part of the trip… she’ll say “the christmas shop!”  i have tons of photos to come from hillenmeyer christmas shop, with which we are ooob-sessed!

fa-la-la!!! christmas party-ing with our bettye-mom!! hilariously, i always wind up with captures of bettye-mom and maddalena unintentionally doing similar silly faces in the same shot. 🙂 they remind me so much of each other sometimes! and oooh, that food. was. delicious!

and total sidenote: i don’t think i noticed at all until this year that i have now worn the SAME fur vest on this visit three. different. years. in a row! and very rarely outside of those visits. woops! guess that shows you just where my brain is this time of year… nowhere to be found, really! haha! although, ’tis the season for fur on everything!!! so far i’ve got jackets, boots, throws, pillows, bean bags, tree skirts, hats, and vests all covered. 🙂

oh, anyway. christmas in lex, we love you forever!!!

[see also: visiting bettye-mom in 2013 // southern lights at the horse park in 2013 // lexington trip in 2014 // lexington trip in 2015 // hillenmeyer christmas shop 2015]