Lights of Life

Jingle was going for a ride on his sled this morning, which meant he had to have snow.  And snowflakes, apparently.  Each one of those snowflakes must have taken a while to cut out!  And that sled is pretty cool - it is on candy canes, making it a completely edible sled.

This morning was the last church service before Christmas, so it was a sweet one for everyone, and a much more relaxed format than the last few weekends.  There was a candlelight service upstairs, a tradition for the church that goes back a ways.  Daddy and another guy were in a video they showed upstairs - it turned out pretty funny.  We showed the same video downstairs:  it was a "how to" video about doing a candlelight service.  Of course, we weren't about to do burning candles with that many kids, so we instead opted to do glow sticks:

It was nice, complete with a whole lot of Christmas carols.  This year, Madison has really grown to love Christmas carols.  Her favorite CD is a Disney one, of course.  It was a CD that we originally looked down on, thinking it wasn't as good as some of the others.  And yet, it was used with her ballet classes, and all of the sudden she just loves to hear this thing over and over again.  She especially loves to hear "Silent Night," which is now Daddy's favorite version of the song, because I'll always associate it with the hand gestures that Madison makes to accompany the song.

We spent a little bit of time at home today, but made plans to head out and do something to celebrate the Christmas season a bit.  As mentioned earlier, the price went WAY up for the Lake Lanier Islands Nights of Lights.  It is now $60 every night, even weeknights.  There are three of us in a car, and we're there about two hours:  that basically equals $10 per hour per person, right?  ($10 X 2 hours X 3 people).  This is how ridiculous the cost is:  Per hour, Lake Lanier Islands Nights of Lights actually costs MORE than going to the Magic Kingdom.

All that said, we decided to make a trip over to Lights of Life, a light display at Life University in Marietta.  It was well worth the trip!

There were quite a few lights there, and although not as much - and not as long a path to drive along, the lights were concentrated heavily in certain areas, as illustrated in that picture above.  It was beautiful - there was Christmas music playing, making spirits bright!

Before we got to the Lights of Life, we decided to eat out at a Steak and Shake - and that's where the three of us split an Egg Nog Milkshake.  Madison loved this one quite a bit.  I warned her that she might not like it, because she wasn't a fan of the egg nog I let her try a few days ago.  But not this time: she grinned really big and said, "I love it!"

Here's something else she loved:

Pony rides!  At Lights of Life, they had an area set up with activities for the kids.  Madison really enjoyed the pony ride, smiling wide the entire journey around and around.  We also went on a mini-train ride as well, which traveled up and around the lights a bit.  Mommy got some funnel cake, and Madison and Daddy roasted marshmallows by the fire they had set up there.  And we got to go walking amongst the lights too, which was pretty neat.

Even adding the Steak and Shake meal for three, and the activities we did, and the entry fee, it was STILL cheaper than going to this local light display.  The only downside was the longer drive, but the three of us absolutely loved Lights of Life for what it was.  They had these displays set up along the pathways, each one with animatronic figures inside, just like the old store windows in the forties.  You know the kind?  You can see them in "The Polar Express," "A Christmas Story," "The Santa Clause" and more.  Anyway, they had about four or five trailers in a row with moving figures inside - Madison enjoyed looking at each one.

We had a great time, but it was a pretty long day, wasn't it?  We started out rather early in the morning, but we were ready to leave pretty early as well:  we left Lights of Life at about 8:00, and Madison fell asleep very quickly in the car.  Tomorrow should be a more relaxing day, although Daddy and Madison are scheduling some last-minute shopping together.  We'll take the nice car, although it would be fun to do what Jingle did this morning:  take a sled!