All the Pretty Lights

If you ask Brooke about where we went Friday night or where we saw The Grinch (more on that later), she says "At the pretty lights." So cute. Where we really went was to Overly's Country Christmas at the Westmoreland Fairgrounds. Joe and Cole have been before, but Ryan, Brooke, and I haven't. We were supposed to come out last year and go with them, but the weather was crappy that weekend, plus my van was broken down at the time. It was fun, but C-O-L-D. Brrrrr! Definitely worth it, though.

First you drive around to see the lights and then you can park and walk in and it's like a little village. They have some places to buy food, a building with a train display, a Nativity, a bonfire, horse and carriage/sleigh rides, a train for the kids, and of course Santa! The kids loved driving through and seeing the lights. Then of course we parked and went in to walk around. We went to see the train display and the Nativity and the kids mailed their letters to Santa and went to see him again and they got to ride the train.

Now, how about some pictures? :o)

King Friday and Lady Elaine's castle (Mr. Roger's Neighborhood)

Wish all the pictures had turned out this good!

The horses actually moved up and down...very neat.

Hehe....wish I would've gotten the giant milk jug in the picture, too.

Neato (yes, I really just said that)

Those 3 circular lights in the background were like fireworks. They were definitely the kids' favorite light display.

The fireworks "exploding"

Brooke LOVED the train.

A talking tree....and it's not just a recording. There is a little booth behind it where someone stands and makes the tree talk, so you can have an actual conversation with a tree...haha.

You would think the highlight of the evening would have been Santa Claus.....but no. It was actually.....

The Grinch! (Ok, I just noticed how Ryan is looking at The Grinch...TOO funny.) We were getting ready to walk in to where the train display was right after getting there and The Grinch was on his way out. I spotted him before Brooke did and wondered what she would do because she normally loves anyone in costume. She was a couple feet ahead of me and as soon as she saw him, she turned around and ran to me and wanted up. I wonder if she would have been as freaked out if we hadn't just watched the Jim Carrey version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas a couple nights before. The boys weren't bothered at all and wanted to talk to him, but as The Grinch got closer Brooke started whining and trying to climb over my shoulder to get away. She did calm down and actually reached out to touch his hand. She kept saying, "Hi, the Grinch" in this trying-to-sound-brave-but-actually-really-freaked-out kind of voice. We saw him several more times while we were there and each time she got braver and braver. The first few times we saw him, she would run to me and want up as soon as she spotted him, but the last time we saw him before we left, she actually walked up to him instead of running to me for safety before talking to him. It was super cute. When we were waiting in line to see Santa, she told me she wanted to see The Grinch. I would say she has a sort of love-hate thing going on there. Joe showed her this picture on the computer this afternoon and she said to me, "I scared of him, Mommy." Hehe.

We came home from Overly's that night and ordered some pizza and wings (which they forgot to send our order to the kitchen and when Joe got there to pick it up, they hadn't even made it yet, so we got it 1/2 off plus two free 2 liters of soda!). Joe's parents came over and we ate and watched the Muppet Christmas Carol movie.

It was another great Christmas-y night!