winter wonderland...

last night, we hauled the kiddos to Winchester VA (about an hour+ drive) 2 check out Winter Wonderland in Clearbrook Park....this was our 1st year visiting the display - a co-worker had told me about it & it sounded really cool

it was!


we got started late (cause i worked till 6pm), then we took the "scenic route" so we could look at christmas lights along the way.....so by the time we got there, it was after 9pm! it was sooooo cold last night too (try like 10 degrees!), but luckily we came prepared with leggings under our jeans, hats, gloves, scarves, etc.....the lights stay on until 10pm & they usually have hot cocoa & occasional appearances by Santa, in a little cabin, at the end of the walk - but last night was dead (which surprised me, i thought the week of christmas, they'd stay busy - guess it was the cold)....they'd already closed down the cabin & were in the process of closing down their cash registers when we got there.....so we got to go in for free! :0) i hadn't told the kiddos about the possible Santa appearance, so no let down there - and i just told em we'd have hot cocoa when we got home (which we did ~wink~)


we still had plenty of time to walk around the park (which is huge!) & check out all the displays.....our fav parts were the lights out in the middle of the pond (which had a thin layer of ice on it!) "how'd they do that?!" was heard quite a few times ;0) and we also loved the musical display - the girls & i have been watching all the dancing light displays on youtube, so they thought that part was especially cool!


we all had numb fingers & toes by the time we got back to the car - but it was worth it! all 3 kiddos asked if we would get to come back next year.....daddy & i promised we would - this just might become a new yearly tradition for us