Pre-Christmas FUN!

I'm sitting here with my daughter watching the Bachelor - her favorite show, well, she's 20-something, what do you expect...  new season and new girls and cute hunky guy.  And if you aren't watching, I'm serious, there's a girl on here that's into "vampire-ism" and she has fangs.  This is going TOO far.  This is making me gag... Blech. 

Lots going on around Sand Flat Farm this holiday season.  I guess I should catch y'all up.  First off, my middle son J GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE!  He actually graduated in August, but the ceremony was right before Christmas!  We were so proud of him - 6 years it took- course he changed his major a time or two, but he's OUT!  Here he is walking across the stage to accept his diploma at the University of Texas at Tyler.

And a pic after the graduation with his family!  We are thrilled to have one more kid off our payroll!!! One year closer to me quitting work! 

And of course, have to have one with the proud fiancee, too!  They are both SO happy! 

Then, we were so sick of holiday food in between that I busted loose and fried up some chicken fried steak, mashed taters, gravy and purple hull peas - which we all gorged ourselves on and later had some Tums for dessert...

Josh and Lindsey at our home in an artistic shot by Princess... 

Of course, we had to celebrate Josh's birthday a few days later.  We had chocolate cake with the good ole orange & white University of Texas colors on it! 

THEN,  me and Princess took off to Fort Worth and met up with my sister and her daughter, Erin, for a fun day at the Gaylord Texan Hotel.  If you've ever been to a Gaylord Hotel, you know how huge and fancy they are and how they go all out on decor and architecture.  At the Texan, they were having the Ice Show "A Charlie Brown Christmas" there and we were taking that in.  While we waited for the show, we spent time browsing in shops, having ice cream and designer coffees and touring the hotel and enjoying all the Christmas decorations.  It was SO over the TOP!

Since it was the "TEXAN", the hotel was all decked out in Texan stuff - a Riverwalk like in San Antonio, Oil wells, mission style shops, Texas style landscapes and vegetation - nothing was left out.  It was great. We took a hundred pictures, me and Erin. 'Course she has a new fancy 35 mm digital camera and my pics do not compare with hers, but I wanted to show you some of what we saw anyway. Thanks for your tolerance.

Here's our girlies in a sleigh - perfect photo op! Aren't they cute!

And me and my sister!

The interior of the Hotel upon first entering.  It was truly breathtaking...

There's no tellin' how much $$$$$$ they spent on Christmas decor...

This is a Gingerbread House replica of the Gaylord Texan Hotel!  WOW!!!

This guy was a NUT - but he was keeping the kiddoes laughing and running around crazy!

Are you in San Antonio at the Theater on the River?  Or are you still in the Gaylord Texan?  Enquiring minds want to know!!! 

Now, I'll tell you a bit about the Ice Show.  The Hotel invited 40+ Chinese ice sculptors and they came over and transformed 2 million 2,000,000 pounds of solid ICE into all the sets of the "Charlie Brown Christmas".  They were spot-ON!  The ice characters were so life-like.  We entered the Ice Show and they provided us heavy knee-length parkas to wear.  They keep the temperatures in there at 9 degrees to keep the ice solid.  They told some scientific reasons why 9 degrees is perfect, but I couldn't begin to explain it to you. 

Anyway, there were quite a few folks there that day, 23rd day of December right before Christmas, so the hotel was pretty full.  But it makes it so much more fun, don't you think!!!  It wouldn't have been nearly so much fun if there were nobody there.  We wove through the maze and visited all of the sets, took tons of pictures, and froze our BUNS off!  Our toes were numb, our fingertips were numb, and our mouths were stiff so we could barely talk!  Man, it made me think about all you folks that live up in the north and have to deal with the frigid temps all winter long!

I'll let you stroll through the scenes with us...

Two Ice Maidens....(below)

And me and seester huddling to stay warm!

Got a little free counseling while we were in there!!!

These were the ICE Slides - talk about freezing your tokey off!

Now actually my favorite sculptures were the angel announcing the birth of Christ, and the whole Nativity Scene - they were so realistic, and they were bigger than lifesize - they were amazing!

It was beautiful and the colors were awesome.  You can kinda see baby Jesus laying there in the manger...

Gotta have a little Alamo in there, too...

And oil wells for Texas...

Gorgeous!

And finally, here's a photo of the whole Gaylord Texan Hotel.  The Gaylord in Nashville is just as luxurious - if you ever get to visit one of these, jump on that chance - it's well worth the effort.  We 4 had a blast all day long - but more than being at the hotel and Ice Show, just being together - just us girls and making some new memories! 

http://dbeckdesigns.com/final_project/links.html

AND I HAVEN'T EVEN GOTTEN TO CHRISTMAS YET!!!