Christmas in July

We had another pleasant day here at Pigeon Forge, starting this out with a good breakfast of course.  The weather started out rainy today, but we still had some nice outdoor seating under a balcony that allowed us to enjoy the sound of quiet rainfall while we ate a pretty big breakfast. 

After that, we went over to the Disney Store at the outlet mall, which was not on our checklist of places to go to, but Maddie has informed us that high school seniors are now getting kids' backpacks to carry around, a sort of tribute to the years they've been in school, as well as just a fun thing to do.  So Maddie picked up a Spider-man backpack and a Spider-man lunchbox too.  

When we were done, we went over to the Titanic again, as you can see here, but we didn't go to the museum this time.  We actually went to go get some ice cream!

They have this new ice cream shop there with all sorts of other candy items too.  Some of the candies and ice cream are themed to the movie or the actual boat itself.  Mom and I shared a sundae while Maddie had a milkshake concoction that was pretty tasty!

When we were done with that, we went down the street to a new indoor mini-golf location (it's both indoors and outdoors, but we chose the indoor course due to the rain).  We were on the mermaid path, and that was all underwater, mostly.  And it was actually a lot of fun, with plenty of visuals and challenges.  Actually, the challenges were fairly difficult at points, but Mom nailed this one hole versus the Kraken, something we saw many others fail miserable at, including Maddie and I.  Mom persevered, and probably because of that one hole alone, she won the day!

No-Eyed Willy!

Flotsam, Jetsam!  Now I got her, boys!  The boss is on a roll!

Mom defeats the Kraken!

Maddie meets a mermaid!  This was a nice meet, as the mermaid was literally about to leave for a break - a helper came with a wheelchair to assist her elsewhere.

Mom agreed to play the part of mermaid the rest of the day...!

Maddie dons a deep sea diving suit.

Poseidon rose up and sort of pushed back the walls of the course so we could aim better...

Mom celebrates Shark Week with another great shot!

Maddie celebrates Shark Week too...

Keep away from this guy - he likes shiny things!

Here are some pics with Joey in them, one of me too...  I think Joey had a good time too!

So yeah, we had a good time there.  Afterwards, we dropped by the Christmas Place to look around a bit, sitting for a spell and looking at a few ornaments.

And after that, we went back to the hotel because we had an appointment with destiny!  It was time... to make Christmas cookies!  We got down to the Holly Room a little early, so we relaxed there for a bit, and even listened in on the clock again.

And then it was time to make cookies!  We signed up early - about two weeks ago - and they had the materials and cookies ready for us in one of the rooms.  We got busy right away!

This wasn't quite as extensive as the gingerbread house night, but we did spend a good bit of time decorating our cookies, both the gingerbread men and the Christmas trees too.  Here's Mom's:

And here's mine:

And here's Maddie's:

And because I love the faces, here's a close-up of Maddie's:

And here's the one Mom did again:

And here's the one I did:

It was fun!  We got back to the room, and the next thing Maddie and I did was head down to the pool.  We spent about an hour swimming, and a little bit of time in the jacuzzi too.  We returned, got showered, and got n a few rounds of a new game called "The Christmas Express." 

You can get board games from the front desk, so we picked this one up and played it twice - Maddie won once, and I won the second time with a come-from-behind victory.  We actually enjoyed this one a good bit.
 

This is the view from our room's balcony.  You can see Maddie over at the overlook area, one of our favorite little nooks with rocking chairs and a nice view.  We spent some time there, rocking and hanging out before getting ready to see Santa.

Ah, here we are in the Holly room again, adn oops:  we got there early.  No worries.  We just sat and talked and hung out until the big moment that you-know-who arrived...

Look at the kids turn to see as he first enters the room!

This is a nice night.  Santa sings for about 45 minutes or so, different requests and a few standards like "Christmas in Dixie."  

Afterwards, we got milk and cookies from Mrs. Claus!  We went out to the fire pit to relax, and the weather was just perfect tonight.

It was a nice night.  We got back in the room, and Mom made us all some hot chocolate because we borrowed another movie from the front desk:  "The Polar Express."  That was the movie we watched tonight, one of our favorites!  We picked it because the corner of our hallway has a Polar Express display that we pass by each time we leave the room.  Also, why not?  Anyway, it was nice watching that a little early in the room, the Christmas tree glowing and it being the 25th.  It was a nice night.  Just five months to go!

We closed out the day with reading and prayers... and to all a good night!