A Charlotte Christmas Tradition

The annual Christmas tree lighting celebration at one of our local mall's has become a special family tradition for us as a way to "kick off" our Christmas festivities.  We've been every year since moving to Charlotte except 2007 (2008, 2009 (I think we went, but I must not have posted about it), 2010, 2011, 2012).  Looking back, there has been a little something different every year we've gone although the big tree pretty much stays the same, and it is also nice to see how different our family looks each year.  It was actually a pretty warm night this year although in previous years it has been considerably colder.  We actually had a night previous to this one where we saw some snow falling so our weather has been pretty cold early this year.  The boys wore short sleeves under their Christmas sweater vests this year.  We think we'll keep this tradition going as long as we can.

The big live Christmas tree after being lit up. 

Our traditional family picture taken by a stranger.  It turned out pretty well even with the addition of the boys' Despicable Me Christmas minion hats.  Ha!

Daddy and his little minions. 

Evan was not in a smiling mood for some reason.  

Some carolers were singing prior to the lighting.

The boys and I did some crafting and made cute snowflake decorations. 

Evan got a balloon sword. 

And Brody loved his balloon puppy. 

Evan was thrilled to play this little mini golf game set up before the tree lighting.