A Million Christmas Lights

It seems weird to be blogging about Christmas lights when it feels like Christmas was about two months ago, instead of only two weeks. Funny how that happens. But I still want to get these pictures up.

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For our "babymoon" we decided to just stick close to home and go to a resort that is only one town away. They had Christmas packages that went along with their light cruises - a cruise across the lake. We had been wanting to take K to it anyway so since we had free tickets as part of our package, we just got four more tickets and invited my mom, grandma, aunt, and cousin to join us. After the show was over K went home with them and we got to go out to dinner, a movie (Sherlock Holmes - it was pretty good!) and then stay at the resort.

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Here we are about to get on the boat. It was really cold...about 25 not counting the windchill, but it was still really fun!

They send two boats at a time, and my aunt got a picture of the other one to show what we were on.

On the way across the lake we sat inside on the bottom deck b/c it was so cold. We all got hot chocolate and T bought a rice crispy treat that was half the size of my head...not exaggerating, I have never seen one so big!

According to the cruise director they have over a million lights (light bulbs that is) and the resort's boardwalk is loaded down with them. It is fun to see all the different things. The mermaid castle is there in the middle of this picture.

And my personal favorite was the nativity. I love the way the lights reflect in the water making it look like there are really two million lights!

When we got across the lake we went up to the top of the boat b/c you are at the "North Pole".

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Noni, K, and Baby and Me :)

Santa and Mrs. Clause are there to greet you from their boat house. :) They have you sign a list so that they can say each child's name. Even though we didn't do Santa with K she got pretty excited when he called out her name. She sat there for about 15 seconds and then a smile started to spread across her face. She talked about it the rest of the night. :)

Then it was back downstairs to re-cross. It was absolutely freezing when the boat was moving and all that wind was coming off the water. Thankfully there was a big table inside to escape to. From K's expression I guess she was getting a little tired at this point. :)

We got back to dry land and there were several Holiday characters there to send us off. We had to get a picture with K's favorite holiday guy, Frosty. She loved Frosty this year...every snowman she saw in December was "FROSTY!" And she actually knew all the words to the song...or her version of them, "With a torn pob pipe and a button nose and two eyes made out of foal". I wonder if he'll be as big of a hit next year. :)

We parted ways after that and K wasn't too happy that we were not coming back with her. It was hard to leave her...or rather let her leave us, but I am so glad we did. It was the first time in almost three years that we have stayed the night on our own...and consequently the first time in almost three years that we got to sleep in until ten!

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We had breakfast in a really nice restaurant overlooking the lake and then spent the rest of the day shopping and just enjoying our time together.
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And K did just fine without us. Here's a picture my mom took of her saying goodnight, she doesn't look too sure about it, but when we got back the next day she didn't even try to hug us, just launched into telling us about all the things she had done, so I think she had a good time. :)

So that was the end of our Christmas vacation Part 1 - my family. We said our goodbyes and headed out to Grandma and Grandpa's house, Part 2. I will get to pictures of that another day.

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Here's K saying goodbye to "Uncle" Sean. :)

And Aunt Karen...which is hard since she lives all the way in Texas and we won't be able to see her again for a while. We miss you already Karen!

Okay, one more "Christmas" post should do it and then I get back to real - time blog posts. :) I did get a new camera so I'm back in business. It's a really nice one and I am very happy to have it here before the baby comes. Now I just have to figure out how to use it. :)