Santa's Wonderland

Last night we met Nate and Mandi for dinner then we headed Santa's Wonderland. We've seen it since we moved to College Station and wanted to go each holiday season, but this is the first year we made it. The place is huge. You can drive through or do a hayride through it. I really wanted to do the hayride but we decided against it this year and thought next year Alex may enjoy it a little more and not be so squirmy. I'm sooo glad we decided to drive through since it started raining before we got to the end and the hay ride people got all wet! I made snicker doodles for us to snack on as we drove through. I was going to make hot chocolate, but it ended up being 70 degrees and I thought hot chocolate may be a little much! It is right off the highway not far from our house. As we headed that way we realized the huge line of cars in front of us were all waiting to go to Santa's Wonderland too. To pass the hour or so we were waiting in line we listened to Christmas music and picked our favorite songs. I have too many favorites to pick one. Nate and Mandi sat in the back with Alex and she thought Nate was the funniest thing ever!

When we finally got close we rolled the windows down...the only good part about it being warm out, and Alex pointed and ooohhh'ed and aaahhh'ed at the lights. There were millions of lights and they had some really cute displays.

The entrance from the highway

Tons of colored trees that line the frontage road

I don't know what the alligator had to do with Christmas, it kinda seemed out of place. Lots of the figures moved. The alligator's mouth opened and closed trying to snap the fish that jumped out of the water. A little morbid and scary for kids..at least he didn't catch the fish!

There were a lot of lighted archways you drive through.

True to College Station form, there was a whole Aggie themed section. We are not Aggies and moan and groan at the crazy Aggies and maroon explosion around this town.

The cute Reveille...who is no where near as cute as our own little collie, Cooper!

I loved these trees! They were much cuter in person.

these were really pretty too!

Over all we had a great time. Alex loved all the lights and stayed up for the entire ride. As soon as we got home she had some milk, I changed her clothes and she crashed!

We are soooo excited for Christmas. Josh has off tomorrow and Friday so we have a few little things to do then we are going to relax and have a big Christmas Eve dinner, just the three of us. I have been going to my grandparents house every Christmas Eve since I was born and this is the first year we are not going. I am kind of sad about it, but I am sooo excited to be starting our own family traditions. Our plan is to go pick out some great steaks at a local butcher shop, come home, relax and have a snacky lunch. (This is my idea. I can't have a Christmas with out snacky foods like summer sausage, cheese, crackers, queso and chips and so on so we are having all that plus little pigs in a blanket for lunch.) We will have steak, shrimp, twice baked potatoes and bacon wrapped asparagus for dinner followed by a fondue dessert! (The steak and shrimp is something Josh said his family used to do for Christmas when they weren't visiting family, so we will carry on his tradition.) We get to open one present on Christmas Eve. (In my house we opened EVERYTHING Christmas Eve, then Christmas morning we got our big gift from Santa and stockings.) After Alex goes to bed, we'll clean up the house and put together all of her gifts from Santa. Josh and I are super excited about this, really!!! We'll set up the living room with her present out in front of the tree unwrapped so she can see everything and she won't have to wait for us to open packages and assemble toys. After presents, we'll open our stocking stuff. Then I'm making arroz con leche for breakfast. (I remember having this growing up and haven't had it in years, so I am really excited about it!) After all the present and breakfast, we are loading up and headed to Dallas to do 3 more Christmases!