Christmas

 On our downtown trolley tour of Montgomery, Taylor saw a store called Looking Good that he felt compelled to frequent.  If you don't know Taylor, he has a sense of style that is all his own.  Right now, he wants to wear suits and this place just happened to have a 2 suits including tailoring sale for $100.  By the time we got back from Florida his brown and white (yes, white) suit were ready in time for him to wear to the Christmas Eve candlelight service we attended.  It was early so we came home to our turkey dinner for 3, opened our flannel pj pants and relaxed.  We got up when we wanted Christmas morning and waited for Taylor to open the few gifts that we had under our tree.  I have to say, the stress level of this holiday was minimal and there is something to be said for cutting way back.  I didn't enjoy the holiday any less, in fact I think I enjoyed it more without twenty lists of things to do.  If I felt like I wanted a hustle and bustle feel I headed to a shopping area and just enjoyed the lights and such without all the purchasing.  The rest of our day we ate munchies and played RISK which Taylor got for Christmas.  He of course, kicked our butts.

 We thought his plane left at 4:30 on the 27th but when we printed his boarding pass the day before it turned out he had to leave at 2:30.  He had wanted to spend the day in Birmingham so we went early and did a little sight-seeing.  We went to the Vulcan Park and Museum which is up on a hill above the city and a great place to see Birmingham.  It was cold and rainy so we spent the majority of the time inside the museum before a brief run to the top.

 We headed to find a place to lunch and ended up in a part of town that is supposedly the "youthful, club oriented" area.  Had a mediocre Mexican meal but got a photo of The Storyteller which is this fountain in the middle of the roundabout outside the restaurant.

 We said our good-byes at the airport.  Check out Taylor's python boots.  He got those at Looking Good as well!  We loved having him here for Christmas and we had a great time.  Wish we could have convinced him to stay.

 After we left Taylor I wanted to swing by the 16th Street Baptist Church which was bombed in 1963, killing 4 young girls.  Our book group here in AL read Four Spirits which centered around this story.  Since it was early we decided to hit the Riverchase Galleria Mall which supposedly has the world's largest skylight.  It reminded us a lot of the mall in Crystal City in Washington DC.  Didn't buy anything.  Just enjoyed the last of the decorations, the hustle and bustle of the holidays winding down.....and we may have shared a pretzel!