Christmas in May

We had a nice full day today, a relaxing one too.  We slept in a bit, but got the last things packed and made our journey upwards to Pigeon Forge for a quick getaway.  Really not much planned on this trip other than the hotel, which is a new place to us.  We'll get to that in a bit.  First things first was food for lunch, which Mom packed for a picnic.  The weather was just perfect for us, and the crowds were really low in Cherokee, where we stopped at Oconaluftee Islands park once more.  We found a picnic table very easily, one right there between the rivers and in the shade. 

It was very nice.  Tradition has been to stop at McDonald's and have a basket of fries as well.  Mom packed some sandwiches and drinks - I even had some Clearly Canadian with my picnic.  Maddie had pickles and chicken nuggets and lots of hot sauce.  Mom had her rice crackers and tuna fish.  There was a natural breeze blowing by in the shade, so we were super comfortable as we sat and enjoyed the day together.

We left and drove over the mountains again, this time not really stopping at all.  Beautiful day outside.  The weather was cooler up on top of the mountain of course, about seventy degrees or so.  The views were grand as always, and the traffic was minimal.  The contrast with traffic is about to change in five days when it is Memorial Day weekend.  Anyway, we made it to Pigeon Forge and arrived at our destination at exactly check-in time.

Here's our room!  And it's Christmas here!  We're staying at The Inn at Christmas Place, and you'll see the decorations here as the blog continues.  But the room has its own Christmas tree, which is great.  We brought along a few presents to put under the tree, gift wrapped and waiting until maybe tomorrow night for us all to open.

You can see Maddie and her three friends in the background.  Joey is with her always, and there's Chloe to the left, a chicken from the video game Stardew Valley.  And there's Joaquin the rubber chicken, which is something I forgot to mention earlier.  It is a huge tradition to stick the rubber chicken out the window when we reach the tunnel to Pigeon Forge.  She squeezes it and it makes loud noises as we drive through the tunnel.  There's a sign for no car horns, so Maddie compensates!

Inside the rooms here, the televisions are set to a channel that shows a burning Yule log as Christmas songs play on repeat.  You can go down to the lobby to borrow a Christmas movie too!

The presents under the tree - and look who else is here!  It's Jingle Bell the elf and Snowflake.  Of course they'd make this trip if it's Christmas here!  

Mom and Maddie in the kitchen area, making tea.  But Mom also brought along some hot chocolate!

Maddie brought her nunchucks along.  Just in case.  But seriously, they're for practicing with.  But a word about these beds:  I have not slept as well in a hotel bed in years.  I just don't sleep well in hotels, but I slept really well here.

I remember wrapping these at the last minute like it was Christmas all over again.  Some items we just used a gift bag for.  We've still got one more item to put under the tree though.  We'll open them on Thursday night.

After we settled in, we decided to head out to a mini-golf place that Maddie was wanting to try out, one that we all enjoyed, Ripley's Old MacDonald's Farm Mini Golf.  Which might have the longest name for any mini-golf location on earth.  But it was a lot of fun!

Joey came along.  You'll see him a lot.  He's enjoying one of the kiddie rides out front.

We purchased three games, which expire in a year.  For game one we chose the "cow route," which you may have "herd" of.  It's utterly fun.  Please don't have any beef with me about these jokes.  I'm milking this for all it's worth.  

Anyway, we enjoyed this one a lot.  These Ripley's courses are the best.  There are a lot of mini-golf courses here in the area, but these are designed more organically, just flowing around with the environment and trees, with lots of entertainment along the way.  

Joey is enjoying the course too, including a visit from this mouse.

We all got a few holes in one, although some were easier to do that with at the end.  Maddie and Mom got some spectacular shots early on.

Yes, pigs fly here.  We were following the cow-themed route, but we passed by the flying pig tower.  

More cowbell!

Bruce Dickinson has a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!  Ironically, we brought along cowbells on this vacation - they're back in the hotel room.  They'll be used for something later on...

Maddie brought her phone along for these pics, and they turned out nice!  Of course, she had to take a lot of her pics of Joey the Porg for the account he has...

At the end of it, all of us had a great time, including Joey.  It was close but Maddie actually overcame her rough start to have a really super middle section.  We all finished strong, but here's the wonderful detail from our Heavenly Father.  Somewhere around hole nine, I found an extra golf ball on the ground.  I decided to hold on to it to deliver it back to the starting counter.  But the last hole had a trick shot in it, one where you launch a ball down a hill and if it lands on a ramp, you win something.  We took our shots, and none of us got it.  So I pulled out that ball, and let Maddie take the shot with the extra golf ball.  And sure enough - she nailed it!  And we won a free game of golf!

We had a great time, and yes, we'll be back pretty soon.  We bought three games for each of us, so we have two extra visits to make.  One of those visits might come in the next few days, actually.

Our next destination was a quick stop-by to pick up some tickets.  Does this place above look familiar?  It might.  We went in and got our tickets to something we'll be seeing in a few days.  We were going to do the Lumberjack Feud, but the food there just wasn't something that can work for Mom.  So we're returning to another place that we all agreed was a favorite destination, and we made our dinner plans for Thursday night.

Then it was back to the Inn at Christmas Place!  Joey's pretty excited!  And the reason he's so happy is because he's about to see Santa!

Each evening, Santa arrives in his chair for a mini-concert.  It's singing with Santa!  A good number of the hotel guests showed up at the first floor beneath the towering glockenspiel, which is easily one of the funnest words to say ever.

This clock goes off on the hour every hour.  The elves strike the bell the appropriate amount of times, and a small door opens at the top where Santa emerges.  Then the bells along the side play different Christmas songs each hour, two Christmas songs of course.

We were there a little early, but the folks were filling up seats, ready to see Santa!

I was snapping photos as we waited, taking pictures of the decorations around the area.

Santa!  I know him!  Santa showed up, and that was just a lot of fun.  He led us in songs for about a half-hour, some new songs and others the classic standards.  There was certainly a focus on Christ in Christmas. 

Afterwards, Maddie posed with Santa, so yes, we actually have our Santa picture early this year!  One of these below should work just fine.  We'll get a frame and we'll be good to go!

And yes, Joey was there for his picture with Santa too!  

Afterwards, everyone went to Mrs. Claus' kitchen for milk and cookies.  They gave us two cookies each - we could have sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies.  And chocolate milk was on the menu too!  That was a nice touch.  We enjoyed the evening here a lot.  We went upstairs back to our room eventually, and settled down for the evening.  It was a full day, and we got a a good night's rest tonight.  We read, and we said our prayers, and then we fell fast asleep, visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads.