364 Days Until Christmas
Every year during Christmas week, we get together with the Ditata's to drive around looking at Christmas lights. This year, I have tons of things on my Christmas to-do list, so we added Ethel M's Cactus Garden in with our annual drive.
Since it opened at 5pm and it's always so busy, we made that our first stop.
They had so many amazing lights. Grace kept talking about how pretty the lights were (in her own Gracie language) and also enjoyed chomping on a candy cane the whole way through:
Since it's a cactus garden, they decorated each cactus with a strand of lights. It really made for lots of color:
They also had snowmen all throughout the garden:
This picture was supposed to get the snowflakes hung above the walkway, but ended up being a good shot of the new baby belly at 20.5 weeks:
I also really liked these little light figurines. Maybe I can get hubby to find me some for next year:
Gingerbread Men and Lollipops
Desert Peacocks
After we finished enjoying the lights at the chocolate factory, we headed straight to Starbucks. Another part of our annual tradition is to get hot chocolates. Even Gracie got to enjoy one this year:
Baby Girl Couldn't Get Enough!
Next up was Quiver Point. It's a cul-de-sac behind Ventano Italian Restaurant (eat there...it's delicious!) where all of the neighbors get really into the Christmas spirit.
Our house got it's inspiration from that neighborhood:
We're hoping more neighbors jump on the bandwagon next year
Enjoy the pictures from this gorgeous place. If you've got the time, take a drive down there to check it out:
We usually drive around a few different neighborhoods to look at more lights, but miss Tenley was a little fussy since it was past her bed time.
We hit up one more house on the way home since it's just around the corner from ours. These guys install Christmas lights for a living, so they really go all out. They had a sign that said to turn you radio to a certain station and then their lights blink to the beat of the music:
I don't what it is about Christmas lights, but they just make you feel so happy inside. Since we didn't get to see as many as usual, I'm sure we'll be taking Grace around to check out some more. We only have a week left before we have to wait another 364 days until Christmas!!
