Illuminate

We did some packing today, and some packing-up too.  The Star Wars tree is nearly done, and other decorations are in various stages of being put away.  We did quite a bit of cleaning up today, but we also ventured out of the house to check something out that we bought tickets to a long, long time ago!

We went south to a mall not far from here, and got there a bit early so that Madison could spend her Christmas gift card to a place there that sold earrings.  As Daddy stood by, Madison and Mommy did their shopping for quite some time, spending girl time, looking around at all the earrings and bracelets and girl things.  They had a great time together, but soon afterwards, we went out to the parking lot for something altogether different:

Tonight we went to an event called "Illuminate."  These beautiful glowing flowers greeted us as we entered the area.  Birds and butterflies were also there, adding to it all.  We couldn't wait to see the other things beyond this!

It's been going on this month at Sugarloaf Mills, about an hour south of our house.  It wasn't that far of a drive, an easy one really.  There are still a lot of shoppers about this week, but once out of that madhouse of a mall, we stepped into this very nice "Light Festival" that was set up in the parking lot.

These bits of material are put on metal framework, painted and illuminated, showing off so many beautiful colors.  There was so much to see this night, from flowers, to large castles as well.

It was like stepping into a Winter Wonderland, with castles, snowy landscapes, and of course Santa too!

Ho, ho, ho!  That reindeer in the front looks ready to fly pretty fast!  I think that's what his expression is saying.  There was some debate about that.  Is he angry?  Of course, where there's Santa, there are also Christmas trees, and pretty huge ones too!

The North Pole area was quite magical, and perhaps a little chilly too!  Madison might have been tempted to take a few of those parkas there!

There were polar bears and penguins and eskimos, of course, but one of the reasons we were so excited to go to this was the Chinese displays that were present.  This night was a perfect transition from Christmas to Chinese New Year, as you'll see with some of the pictures below.

These are quite beautiful, the metal framework supporting these illuminated painted fabrics, transporting those visiting to another world - in this case, China.  Here's Mommy and Madison, and you can see the bigger crowds hadn't quite arrived yet.

It was a timed event, with tickets telling you what times to come.  We purchased our tickets a long time ago, and we chose to come as early as possible so we can really check out the things to see.  We were not disappointed!

There were so many illuminated things here, you could spend a good deal of time just walking amongst them, which we did.  Madison really enjoyed it!

So did Mommy!  It was worth the trip heading down to see all of these, and seeing them a week after Christmas was great too.  Originally, Daddy thought he had purchased tickets for a week earlier, only to print them out and realize that the tickets were for tonight.  This was initially a bummer:  I was hoping to go see this before Christmas.

But God has wonderful timing about things:  we were all still recovering from illness a week ago, and it would not benefit us in any way to go out into the cold like this a week ago.  And another thing:  the weather tonight was ideal.  It was a perfect time to go out and see all these lights.  And there were also a few other things to see here, including a visit to see some Chinese acrobats.  We got in a long line, as there were plenty of people there by this point to see everything.

It was a large tent, one filled with people who came to see the show, and it did not disappoint.  Also nearby, there was a magician in another tent that Madison wanted to see.  We went to that tent soon afterwards, enjoying that performance as well.

But the lights were the real star of the night.  see the detail in this simple teapot here, one of the objects nearby as we waited in line.  Look how large that tower is in the back, easily a couple stories tall.  And each of these took up a lot of space horizontally too.

We couldn't tell if this was related to "Alice in Wonderland," or perhaps just some early Easter decor. There were sections of this area, and our favorite was probably the Chinese area, for obvious reasons.

This panda above was no doubt warm enough throughout the night.  The temperature was chilly, but not frigid.  And not raining either.  It's done that a lot lately, as noted here on these pages.  And later on this evening, it rained again, and a lot.  God blessed us with a perfect night together, enjoying this remarkable display

Here's a close up of the Chinese structure that stood at the center of all the pieces, something you could see from the interstate nearby.

Like previously said, this bridges things nicely to the Chinese New Year season, which is in fact somewhat of a "season" for us.

The Chinese acrobats had all sorts of performances with balancing chairs and tables, juggling, some interesting acts with large ceramic jars, and of course these hoops.

Yes, we understand that the Christmas season is the king of all seasons, but there is that empty place in January that needs desperately to be filled, and how fortunate we are to have a reason to celebrate Chinese New Year each year, bringing Madison to events like these, and doing all those related celebrations from home.  The vacancy of Christmas spirit can be formidable, but this is a nice season too, especially for some of us in the church as well, as you'll see upcoming.

Another theme of the area was something "Under the Sea."  It was a great display of sea turtles, octopi, and all kinds of underwater sea life.

You can see the sea turtle in the distance, the small green face sticking out.  Of course Madison got excited upon seeing that!  Here she is with Mommy amongst the fish there, bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea.

And here below is Madison and Daddy, now Far East, in front of a portion of the Great Wall of China, joining the other soldiers!

Let's get down to business and defeat the Huns!  In this next shot, Madison poses with the other Chinese soldiers, ready to do battle!

Each of these displays were really large, and the fact that you can walk through each one - rather than drive - made it a much more enjoyable experience because you could sit there and take your time, admiring each design.

One of the nicer surprises was a a booth that handed out Christian tracks, and even a Nativity set:

From the Far East to under the sea to the North Pole, and then to Bethlehem.  Here's one more photo of Madison, not far from the manger.

It was getting colder as the night went on, and we saw everything there without any rush.  We left to the car, which was pretty close by (parking favor!), and were on our way home.  It was starting to rain about half-way home - I don't know if it was raining back on the festival or not, but it never rained once on us.  It was a perfect evening, and a very nice thing to do during this season.