The Six Saturdays of Christmas.....

.....on the first Saturday there was the Festival of Trees! And, historical home tours....almost! And, a chilli cook off in 5 Points!

This morning we got up and Ron, Ben and I (Clay stayed home to watch the Ohio State/Michigan game) headed out to start celebrating the season! We started at the State Museum for Palmetto Health's "Festival of Trees". It was terrific! The trees were beautiful, though we didn't actually bid....the few things that I wanted to bid on were already sold at the gala on Friday night. Ben visited with Santa and we toured the SC Military Museum, which also offered free admission for the day. And, we found exactly what Ron had been looking for --- a garnet vest with a black Palmetto tree ---- at 20% off in the gift shop!

From the festival, our plan was to head over to the home tour at Historic Columbia. They were celebrating education week by offering a goody bag to teachers, free admission and a store discount. What I didn't know was that the last tour started at 2 and we arrived at 2:30! Oh well! We spent some time talking in the gift shop and I bought a couple of really great, but inexpensive bracelets. On the way there, we saw a really cool site, a bride and her bridal party crossing Main Street.

Since this didn't work out we decided to go walk around 5 Points before heading home. It just so happened that Group Therapy was having their chilli cook-off. We tried some chilli, walked around the shops, bought Maggie treats at 3 Dog Bakery and enjoyed the remainder of the day.

What a fun start to the Christmas season!

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