Christmas Countown

Now that everyone is feeling better, it was back to holiday-related activities. First was"Hot Rod Santa" at Amy's Ice Cream down the street. Since Dean was still recovering, he stayed back with Ed while I took Morgan. He seemed excited about seeing Santa (or maybe just his hot rod) but once we got there, he was all shy and didn't want to sit with Santa. So we checked out his cool ride and got ice cream instead. While eating ice cream, I asked Morgan if he was more excited about seeing Santa or eating ice cream and he responded with a mouthful, "ice cream." So there you go : )

Next was our first attempt at making a gingerbread house ever. Dean got one side of the house, marked with a "D", and Morgan got the other, marked with an "M". They were instructed to not eat the candy, which to my surprise, actually succeeded in deterring them. They liked decorating with all the different colors and were proud of their finished product:

Then, last night was the final night of "Trail of Lights" at Zilker Park. It's been a holiday tradition since the 60's but was absent the past two years due to lack of funding. We had heard a lot of hype about it as a spectacular light display that you can walk through, so we made the effort to stand in line for 1 hour before it opened. It was fun to see with the kids, but the crowds took away from the enjoyment somewhat, and to be honest, we thought the light display we saw last year at Wimberley was more original and charming. Nevertheless, at least we got to see what it was all about and the kids liked looking at all the themed displays.

Lastly, this morning we checked out the gingerbread house display at the Four Seasons downtown, comprised of landmarks of Austin.