Festival Of The Trees

It was always the plan to leave Iowa, specifically, the Quad Cities. Through many years of trying and fervent prayer, the universe thwarted my efforts and grounded us to this area. Of recent, I've accepted our fate and realized that we have an awesome community with plenty to offer. One of which is the annual Festival Of The Trees that is filled with Christmas cheer: hundreds of Christmas trees decorated in themes, student choir singing from the local schools, gingerbread displays, raffles, decorations, gifts, shopping, and silent auctions. Additional events include: Breakfast With Santa, Holiday Parade, Sizzlin Soiree, Celebrity Lunch, Family Day, and other exciting things you can find in the website.

My mother, Maksim, and I went the morning of the 25th of last month to avoid the crowd. It was bitter chilly that day, but our time was filled with warmth and happiness. It was truly magical.

Temperatures were in the late teens that day.
Here is Maksim all bundled up. He had on three layers of clothing
underneath his coat and two layers of pants.
He was nice and toasty.

Checking out the trees by the entrance.

Oooo...

Ahhh...

Looking at the awesome display of a gigantic tree with 4-5 train sets
going at the same time. It was magical to him. His eyes said it all.

Looking at the train set from the barricaded distance.

Maksim broke in and went under the barricade to get an up close and personal
look of the choo choo trains. One of the volunteer allowed Maksim to check it out.
It was very sweet of her to do so. It's really difficult carrying a ton of winter
clothes, coats, and bags, while looking after a toddler and simultaneously
taking pictures. It was challenging, but worth it.

And what is this? AN ELMO TREE!!! One minute, Maksim was beside me. 
The next thing I knew, he ran. Destination, the ELMO tree. 
He gravitated to this tree throughout our stay there. It was adorable.

Middle school choir. They were really good.

I'm not sure what this was, perhaps, Show Choir?
These young ladies sang beautifully.
I'm so impressed by what the local schools are doing with their students.

Gumma and Maksim.

I love the ginormous tiny town display.
It would have been fantastic to take micro photos of the details,
but with a toddler, it was nearly impossible.

Wouldn't it be nice to live in this village?

The ice skating rink.

Look who we bumped into? Makaela! She was part of the choir that was on
stage when we arrived. We didn't get a chance to take a picture of her 
when she was singing, but Maksim was lucky enough to get a picture with her.

Almost time to go home. One last stop, the Christmas Tree decorated in toys.

Maksim spotted a Handy Manny toy.
Precious.

And this was the only picture that was taken of my son and I.
My mother took this picture.

After the Festival Of The Trees, we went to Tantra Asian Bistro. Maksim ate half a small bowl of pumpkin soup, half of my grouper fish dish with rice and sauteed vegetables, some of Gumma's glass noodles, and two special fortune cookies. It was the most I've seen him eat in one sitting, but he enjoyed it. He is a solid, growing boy. I'm so proud of him.

All in all, it was a great day.