A couple of weeks ago, Clint called me and said he wanted to get mom and my family something to do for Christmas. He kicked around a couple ideas, but we landed on Enchant at Saint Pete. Basically it's a whole lot of lights and ice skating. I was super excited to go, because it's been on my holiday bucket list for years (it is pricey though, and I could never justify shelling out the cost of it). Unfortunately, it was a rainy evening when we went out the Thursday before Christmas. Lucky for us the whole thing is inside.
It's actually inside at Tropicana field, where the Rays play baseball.
They tranform the whole place into a winter wonderland!
Parts of it are kind of like a maze (albeit a very easy maze). But there's lots of different lights and various stars to find.
It's really gorgeous and the pictures don't even do it justice. Still, I'll just let the pictures kind of speak for themselves.
The giant tree is in the middle, surrounded by all the other lights.
And there's lots of sculptured lights. Everything from flamingos on the ground to whales "swimming" from the ceiling.
The lights go all the way to the top of the dome. It's impressive really.
I was getting inspiration for next years neighborhood lights left and right! Such an awesome christmas gift, so thanks Clint!
After making our way through the maze we headed on over for our ice skating time.
Mom stayed behind on land to take pictures for us, but all five Waterstrauts made a go at the ice skating. Calib was just awful at it, made it one time around clutching the wall (which took him nearly 45 minutes).
Peyton did a little better, she at least crossed back and forth from the inside wall to the outside wall. Hayden went all in- and fell A LOT. But, started to get the hang of it toward the end.
Asa and I of course were not terrible. We've been skating twice recently- on cruise ships!
After we turned back in our skates, we were treated to a Florida "snoap" storm! (I also want to make a snow machine for next years lights, Teresa says it isn't hard, so I'm going to give it a go.)
When we were all done on the ice, we headed up to the second floor of the trop to get a birds eye view of the whole thing. It was very impressive.
Luckily by the time we left, the rain had gone and the traffic had cleared. What took an hour and 20 minutes to get there took just 50 to get home! We celebrated with some pumpkin pie. We even got mom to be a rebel and eat it like Asa does.
The rain was gone, however, it was bringing in some cold temps. I made sure to get all the dogs some new warm gear for the event. Christmas was coming early for them so they could be all roasty toasty.
Friday Asa and I had errands to run, including picking up Crumbl cookies for Christmas Eve (You guys, that eggnog one is killer). We also swung by Five Below and I found a beanie hat that would fit over my ponytail, so I was excited to have that. (I literally wore it for days to keep warm, even inside the house).
After errands, I spent my afternoon making holiday treats. We did chex mix, puppy chow and some more reindeer cookies.
We also played a couple of punches, including the optional "roll the can". Basically I section off the kitchen table. You then roll the can, and you get whatever the can lands on. If it's a plate of whipped cream, you get it to the face, if it's money, you get the money. Both Hayden and Calib opted to play, and they both landed on the $10. You get two rolls, and Calib's fell off the table the second time, but Hayden landed on the $10 for a total of 20 Christmas bucks.
Then grandma wanted to play. Her first roll, though, she ended up in whipped cream.
So, Hayden had the honors.
And, then she did it AGAIN. And Calib had the honors. At least grandma is a good sport!
I also let the doggies have their leftover pupcakes from Ellie-versary.
And then I was off to get ready for our neighborhood Christmas party we were putting together. Asa and I had hand delivered fliers to people on our side of the Blue Spring Drive, or put them in mailboxes if they weren't home.
I was busy during the party with everything, so I hardly took any pictures. But it was an awesome time. I think we ended up with nine houses coming over. Pretty good for how cold it was, and how last minute it was (several people told us they would have loved to come but they already had other holiday plans). Still, people brought food, everyone raved about how nice it was to have the neighborhood come together. Some people came totally festive. Dogs were here. We got fire Teresa to come down in her gear (there's so many Teresa's on our street they now get nicknames to differentiate.) We had older people, younger people, just everyone. (Pictures curteousy of my mom)
We even got the LeJunes, who live down the street from me- but John, the dad down there, actually grew up in Fremont and was friends with my brother. He started telling childhood memories and talked about this game we played with the "Blue Gnarly" (a blue rock we basically played keep away with), and I was like 'oh my god, I have the blue gnarly in my front flower bed' and ran to show him. It was amazing.
All in all a wonderful night, and so glad we could host everyone. We had hotdogs and snacks and drinks. We even picked the last of the lemons for one giant punch bowl of lemonade. I so wish I had taken more pictures, but this one of fire Teresa and Dominic is all you really need.
Fire Teresa came in handy too, because she tended to the fire pit all night, which we needed, because it was cold.
EVerytime someone left, we all closed in the circle coming a little closer to the fire. When all the fire wood was estinguished, and it got too cold, we all headed in. (Check out OG Teresa- who is from Alabama- all bundled up there).
When we got inside, I made sure Porkchop was warm and toasty in his turtleneck.
And, I noted how crazy my room looked. Between presents, stuff for Christmas punch games, and the cold weather bringing in the plants, it was quite the hodge podge of stuff.
I do want to note, I was not exaggerating. It's been SO cold here. The coldest Christmas since we've been here for sure. When we were putting out chairs for the party, and Asa unstacked the ones we use around the firepit in the backyard, there were lizards just falling out of them and not moving because they were too cold. I have literally never identified with an animal more.
Next up: A very chilly Christmas.
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