Celebration #3

This past weekend we celebrated Thanksgiving with M's family. We did our usual meal on Sunday afternoon and it was delish! The cousins always have fun together and are exhausted by the time we leave their house.

Monday we did something I've been wanting to do since I heard about it last year. We went to the Gaylord Texan and saw ICE! The hotel is absolutely beautiful when it is decorated for Christmas.

These pictures are just glimpses of how beautiful the place really is in person.

I'd heard that it is really cold in there so I had the boys bundled up as much as I could. I warned M on the way out but he told me he'd be just fine. Uh huh.

We waited in line in the midst of some more beautiful decorations to see a video about the creation of ICE.

Last year the theme was Dr. Seuss. This year it was Charlie Brown. 40 ice sculptors from China are flown in to create this beautiful masterpiece. The temperature is critical and with all the freezers going the room is kept at a nice cool 17 degrees.

We entered and it was breathtaking! EVERYTHING is made out of ice...and I mean everything.

Oh yeah. Everyone is given a large parka which is really needed in the cool air. I had Peanut in the Ergo against me, with layers on and a cute little hat. We were even able to get the parka to kind of close up on him. Thank goodness!

The boys LOVED the ice slide. All three of my big boys were able to go down it. :)

By the end of the tour our noses were quite cold, cheeks a little numb and fingers were getting stiff...but it was SO...FUN!!

At the end of ICE I was blown away by the last room. It was a gorgeous nativity scene. No color, just the reason for the season. It was so powerful and so moving. It was a wonderful reminder of why we celebrate Christmas.