1, 2, 3, 4, 5

five golden rings.  truthfully, there are no rings involved in this post, but it does share about the first five days of my christmas, so it seems somewhat relevant.  pretend with me, folks!

{golden ring one}

christmas shopping trip at short pump mall.  if you know anything about lynchburg, you know the shopping racks do not necessarily provide the best options.  after scoring some good deals at the m&g warehouse sale, a few friends and i jumped in the car and traveled to short pump in richmond for an afternoon/evening of christmas shopping.  the gorgeous weather allowed us to enjoy the beautiful outdoor mall.  they also have a beautiful christmas tree!  though i did not get everyone checked off my list, i was able to make some progress.  [last year i waited to do a majority of my shopping until dec. 23, so this start is good, really good!]  we finished the night with a stop at the cheesecake factory.  i order the ultimate red velvet cake cheesecake.  always my favorite option!

{golden ring two}

the annual lynchburg christmas parade never disappoints.  it gives the macy's day parade a run for their money.  okay, maybe not quite, but this year it certainly raised the bar for next year's parade.  i'll tell you why in just a moment.  it was another gorgeous day, so there was no need to bundle up this year.  the turnout for the parade is always fun, even if it is just lynchburg.  one of our favorite times at the parade involves us cheering just as loud as the kids around us, so we can get candy from the parade floats.  i think the unspoken goal is to get more candy than the kids.  all of our loot gets thrown on the group blanket.  this year, we were wonderfully surprised with real, yes REAL parade balloons.  add that to the favorites list!

{golden ring three}
let the christmas movie watching begin!  at monday night dinner, the crew decided to watch a christmas movie.  to my disappointment, i was struck with the realization that chezmk simply does not have a large collection of christmas movies.  we have exactly three movies that would fall into the christmas category?  three?!?!  this is entirely unacceptable.  life lesson of the week?  invest in more christmas movies.  with our limited selection, how the grinch stole christmas was played on the screen.  call me the grinch, but i decided i'm not really a fan of this version of the grinch.  stink.  stank.  stunk.

{golden ring four}
another movie night.  just not from my movie shelf.  i found the classic rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer on tv.  winner.  just fun and classic christmas!  i mean, who doesn't love the misfits?!?!  that rudolph, he's going to go down in history.


{golden ring five}
day five was another lynchburg favorite.  the virginia christmas spectacular.  years ago, when i was originally introduced to this performance, it was known as the living christmas tree.  people sing in a tree.  a friend of mine had a speaking role this year, we'll refer to her as #twitterlessemily.  she's so precious and talented.  good job, emily!  chuckie b had a few performances throughout the night, too.  and that man can sing.  i mean, really sing.

merry christmas, friends!