the grand illumination

For the first time, we ventured downtown to be part of the grand illumination. It was SO crowded. We got down there at 5pm, before most everyone else and were trying to figure out what all the fuss was about. So we ordered a funnel cake and sat down to watch.


It sure was cold...but we were bundled up.


Luckily, Diego needed a diaper change or I don't know that we would have seen all the cool things inside the buildings.


I love his amazed expression as he looks up at the giant Nutcracker.


Letters to Santa go here!


A cute little igloo scene.


It felt like New Year's Eve with the count down to light up.


You can see some of the buildings in the background.


We snapped this as we were being herded off of the grass...oops! we didn't know we weren't supposed to be up there.


As we were headed out, we got front row seats to the marching band. That was exciting and we nearly leapt out of our boots when they started up.


We also hit the Radio Disney booth to pick up some free stuff they were handing out...people were going crazy trying to grab these mesh stockings. Of course, they weren't filled with anything...it wasn't until we got home that we realized they were supposed to be filled for area kids for the Salvation Army. So we filled ours for a boy 6-8 years old. The kids had fun picking out things for it, and it was hard to stop. Amazingly enough, the advent activity for this week is to be an "angel" for somebody else...by donating toys or clothes to an organization. I so love when life's events work out like that.


Our parting words from the grand illumination...."never again". But we're glad we did it once.