We have definitely been getting into the Christmas spirit!  While Greg has been visiting with us, we’ve gone on several adventures which we’ve already told you about.  Well, Saturday night Greg took us over to Charleston for a dinner cruise with The Plantation Singers.  What a treat that was to be on board with the beautiful women and men singing a variety of songs from Christmas tunes to gospel music.  My youngest daughter even requested a song, I’ll Fly Away, which they were so happy to perform for her.  They also sang some of their toe tapping, hand clapping music which we all enjoyed.  They kept us well entertained on the two hour cruise around the Charleston Harbor.  AND … the food was delicious!  They had a variety from shrimp and grits to a pork loin complete with brownies and chocolate chip cookies for dessert (notice how I am just mentioning my favorites although the entire meal was delicious!).

Sunday we went over to see The Royal Gala of Horses!  If you’ve been following along for a while, you know how we love our horses!  Before the event, we rode our royal horses around our house – at least we think they are royalty!  🙂  I will have to say that as much as I enjoyed the show with the beautiful horses and their dressage training, there’s nothing like our very own horses that we ride almost daily!  While they put on a heck of a show, we remain devoted to our own horses.  I have said a long time ago that my horse, Sugar, is a little princess.  I even had a tiara for her at one point.

Stop laughing …

Okay … you can laugh!

BUT you have to admit that she is beautiful and deserving of being treated as royalty.  My friend, Debbie, (God rest her soul) used to joke about how we thought owning horses would be so glamorous, yet there we were out there grooming the horses getting dirty while our horses soaked up all the attention and all of our time and money, too!  While this is also true, they give us so much joy.  There truly are no words to describe how we feel when we are with our horses.  It sounds strange to those that have never caught the horse fever, but to those that have, they know exactly what we speak of as they feel it, too.   There is just something about these majestic animals submitting to you willingly, and believe me, if one did not wish to submit, you would know it.  However, these gentle giants willingly give themselves to you as they trust you completely to do no harm to them … and the greatest bond of all time forms between horse and rider.

Ah, but I’ve gone on and on now about my horses once again.

One of these days, I will get Greg on the back of one of our horses.  He hasn’t ever ridden a horse before, so we must do something about that ASAP!  Until I’m able to snap a picture of him on horseback, enjoy these pictures from the show (We apologize in advance for the poor picture quality, but we did not know we could take pictures so we did not take our camera.  Instead, we were forced to use our phones.):

After the horse show, we ventured over to Michael’s Café & Catering.  We showcased them on our site many months ago when they held their grand opening, so we thought we’d stop in to see how they’re doing.  They were actually doing quite well as the café was full to the point that we were offered a table in their banquet room.  It was really nice to have the entire room to ourselves.  They went all out with the decorations, and my daughter danced around the room going from one tree in the corner to the other.   I think it is safe to say that she enjoyed herself that evening.  We did, too, as you can tell by the pictures below:

And the fun continues as tonight Greg is taking us to see Jim Brickman in concert with guests Anne Cochran and Tracy Silverman!  This has been a holiday tradition for us as Greg started years ago sending us tickets to Jim’s show as our family Christmas present.  At first we had no idea who Jim Brickman was, but it didn’t take us long to come to know and love his piano music.  Now our ten year old can even recognize when Jim’s songs come on our iPod or on the radio.  He IS a piano sensation, and we encourage you to look into his tour this holiday season.  We highly recommend his music any time of year but there is something that makes it even more special around Christmas.

Whatever you do this holiday season, please remember the real reason for the season:  Christ Our Lord!