Christmas Village

Last year we started the tradition of braving the cold and crowds to see the Christmas Village on downtown 25th street. Tonight, because it is one of the warmer nights we will have this week, we decided to continue that tradition.

As always the kids had a blast walking in the snow, getting snow balls, wandering around, looking at the lights and ooh-ing and ahh-ing at everything.

Though tonight was a great night for US to go it also was a great night for all of the YOUTH GROUPS to go as well. Which means that there were a TON of YOUTH wandering around being . . . teenagers.

There were times it was hard to keep track of the kids because of the other BIG KIDS (aka: teenagers) especially when our little kids kept running ahead. But we didn't loose anyone so there is nothing to worry about. : )

Benjamin LOVED all of the lights which were everywhere. At one point he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, pointed to a tree that was lit up in green lights and said "WOW!!!" over and over again.

Rachel (and Benjamin) enjoyed looking in all of the mini-houses and telling us everything she saw. In one part there is a real Santa where you can sit on his lap, tell him what you want and he'll give you a candy cane and a promise to bring you what you want if you are good. (You know the drill.)

But after our last experience with Santa and the long line we decided to not do that part this year. So this is the closest they got to a "Santa" . . . looking at some mechanical doll through a window.

Here are two cute shots of my kids having fun in the snow and with some of the displays. I dressed them extra warm and much to my delight they both were toasty, roasty warm the entire time. : )

Downtown there is also an outdoor amphitheater where they do free movies during the summer on Monday nights as well as other concerts throughout the year. Well much to our surprise there were some folk dancers out there in the FREEZING COLD WEATHER doing some traditional German dances. Of course we stopped and watched a couple. We all enjoyed our little surprise very much.