Victorian Christmas 2011

No, those are not my dachshunds. But these cutie patooties were out and about last night in Thomasville at the annual Victorian Christmas celebration. I spotted these guys from across the street and had to go get a picture of them. There was actually a third dachshund with them as well, so I felt that it was fate calling me over to go see them. I know I embarrassed Stacey to death going over to talk to these people, but us dachshund owners are a special breed. We understand. We get it. When you see something as cute as two dachshunds dressed up riding in a wagon, you go in for a second look.

We had a nice time walking around downtown. Stacey and Jason were very kind to let me third wheel it with them last night. Hopefully I didn't embarrass her too badly. But if Jason is going to hang around, he will have to learn to deal with me. I sometimes don't have a filter on that mouth of mine.

I'm going to go ahead and apologize for the quality of these photos as you can see above. I didn't want to completely embarrass Stacey bringing out the big camera, so these are all photos I took on my phone.

It was pretty crowded last night. It was so cold, so I was glad that there was a good turn out. I'm sure it will be even busier tonight, considering that is when many out-of-towners will come enjoy the festivities.

We got to see a lot of people dressed up in Victorian Era costumes. The people above were the strolling Christmas Carolers. I told Stacey that I was kinda glad that they decided to hire the Tourism Coordinator job at the City internally, because if I had gotten the job, then I would have had to dress up and work the event both nights in the freezing cold. But knowing me, I would have enjoyed every minute of it!

They had lots of activities for the kids. They had a "winter wonderland" complete with real snow for the kids to play in, a train to ride around, visits with Santa, and marshmallow roasting around fire pits.

The middle picture is of the Civil War Encampment that the Sons of Confederate Veterans coordinated to teach people about how people celebrated Christmas during the War Between the States. Jason and Stacey wouldn't let me get my picture with a guy that was all dressed up in uniform. Bummer. They also didn't understand why the soldiers were there, camped out right next to this:

They were right next to the live Nativity Scene that my church puts on every year. I don't think neither Stacey nor Jason appreciated my history lesson on the Civil War prison that was in Thomasville near the end of the war. No stroll downtown would be complete without a history lesson from me. Jason learned the hard way. But he did learn of the rumor that there is a mass grave of Yankees underneath Broad Street in front of the Methodist Church. Soldiers were brought to Thomasville from Andersonville at the very end of the war as Sherman was marching through Georgia and the sick ones were taken to the church. It is rumored that a bunch of those sick soldiers died and were buried right there in the front of the church. Again- this is all allegedly.... Moving on.

All in all, it was nice to go get in the Christmas spirit. Hopefully tomorrow I can get out and actually buy a Christmas present. That's right folks, I haven't bought one single present. Not one! I am going to see if I can keep my vow and only buy gifts from downtown Thomasville. I think I can make it happen. Hope everyone is taking full advantage of the local activities of this holiday season.