The Adventures of Lilli: Santa #2

Our neighborhood was also having a special "Christmas in the East" all day Saturday. It was our neighborhood tour of homes day, so there was a ton going on for the entire weekend. Earlier in the morning there was a little parade from Bongo Java to ArtHouse Gardens, then the FairyTales shop read The Night Before Christmas and then Santa arrived. After Santa encounter #1 Lilli was really wanting a nap, so unfortunately we missed all that stuff. (Next year we'll skip Santa #1 and stick with the East Nashville activities!) Santa was supposed to stay until 1, and Lilli woke up from her nap at 12:45. We gave her a bottle lickety-split and then headed down to the Gardens and got there right at 1 - just to see Santa getting in his "sleigh" (a Camry). The super nice people at the Gardens told us he was really a great guy and we should go and chase after him....so we did. Brent knocked on the window of his car and he was nice enough to get out and have his picture made with Lilli. He kept saying how glad he was that we caught him and so on, and couldn't have been nicer. I wish I could say we got a great pic, but once again she was pretty apathetic. Didn't cry but also wasn't into it. And the backdrop of the parking lot is just classic!

Later that night we took Lilli on her first tour of homes around the neighborhood. It was great - Brent's favorite house was on it, and then we got to go into former Mayor Purcell's house! He couldn't have been nicer. We've always hoped he would be on the tour (he lives about 3 blocks away) and I guess now that he's no longer mayor he's back on it. He was so gracious and greeted each guest. He absolutely loved Lilli and said at least 5 times how good it was to have a baby on the tour. He actually used to live on our street a few blocks down! He's been in East Nashville for over 20 years, and he really did SO much for the neighborhood. On our way out we were going to have his pic made with Lilli but several other "tourists" arrived and we didn't want to interrupt. Lilli did really well on the tour and the homeowners all enjoyed seeing her.

Here she is all bundled up over the weekend - it was COLD! I think she was really cozy because she stayed like this for a while before she wanted to get out and sit at the actual table.