My New Favorite Place

Yep, holiday spirit is in full swing in our neck of the woods.  I am a bit obsessed with making memories with Colton and starting traditions that hopefully our little family will carry on for years to come.  As part of that, I made our holiday to-do list a few weeks back and am happy to report that we have been diligently checking things off of it (in the midst of prepping for Baby X, shopping for holiday presents, etc...we're busy I tell you!).  I shared a little photo dump with you last week from some of our happenings, so I won't bore you with tons of photos from more holiday activities (or my old laptop crashed and I lost the photos, at least temporarily...either way, you're saved!), but I have to share with you some shots from my new favorite place/our new essential holiday destination: Christmas Town at Busch Gardens.
Busch Gardens is an amusement park in Williamsburg, Virginia (about an hour away from us).  If you live around here, you have been there at least annually from the time you were born to ride the rides, eat at the Festhaus, etc.  A few years ago, the folks over there had the brilliant idea to start Christmas Town where the park is transformed into a holiday wonderland: lights, trees, hot chocolate, even snow.  We had never made the trek, but figured this was a good year to give it a go, so we met some friends up there Saturday night (along with about 15,000 other people who also clearly thought Saturday night was a great time to visit Christmas Town...the place was at capacity by 5PM!).
Despite the crowds, it was an awesome holiday experience.  It was really beautiful for one thing.  And there was a Sesame Street show that our little boy flipped over.  Plus, the hot chocolate was just about the tastiest hot chocolate EVER.  Unfortunately, Colton didn't get to ride any rides this year, but luckily, we'll be back next year to give that a go.  For now, here are some highlights from the evening (by the way, I was having issues with the flash on my camera (that are now resolved), so some of these are a bit blurry!):

It was seriously one of my most favorite experiences ever (well, besides the crazy crowds).  If you live close by, you should totally make plans to go.  And if you don't, well...come visit!  Or maybe they have things like this everywhere?