2018 Dec 2, A Visit to see Santa Clause at Santa Land Elgin, Alabama

Hubby, Ava, and I went to visit Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the Reindeer at Santa Land.
Hubby parked the car in the field, and we walked to the ticket counter. There, we purchased our tickets and were told we could take our time strolling the grounds before entering the Castle. 

Entrance to Santa Land

SantaLand 

We saw Micky, Minnie, Winnie the Pooh, Tiger, and many other Disney Characters.
Ava and I enjoyed listening to and dancing to the music played at the Looney Tunes Area, featuring Wylie Coyote, Road Runner, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Sylvester, Yosemite Sam, and the Tasmanian Devil. 

Ava and I were dancing to the music, and Hubby overheard a little girl say I want to go there and dance. 

SantaLand is home to Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, Reindeer, and many other characters. 
Ava loved all the outdoor decorations but wanted to go inside because it was a bit chilly outside. 

Ava said, "I am Cold!" 

Once inside the Castle, we saw a menagerie of Christmas Decorations. 

A couple of Puffins 

The Grinch 

Santa and his talking Reindeer 

We were greeted by Santa's helper and waited for our turn to sit in Santa's lap and talk to Santa. 

Ava went right up and sat in Santa's lap. She told him what she wanted for Christmas.
She told Santa, and we continued walking through the Castle. 

Ava and Santa Claus 

Ava and Mrs. Clause 

Next, we saw Mrs. Claus. Ava went right up and sat in her lap, and she gave Ava a Candy Cane. 
We took a few pictures inside and walked outside.

We could hear the Chipmunks singing in the distance. Ava said they were singing too loudly. 

Alvin, Simon, Theodore the Chipmunks

Ava kept saying I want to go back inside and see Santa Claus. So we took her back through, and Santa was going on break. He asks Ave if she wants to go see the Reindeer, and she says yes.
Santa took Ava's hand, and they walked outside, stopping to see the Reindeer. 

Ava and Santa are visiting the Reindeer. 

Santa holding Ava's hand 

Ava told Santa Merry Christmas 🎄
We walked around outside some more. It was damp and cold outside, so we
went back inside.
We bought Ava a gingerbread cookie and took it to a table to be decorated. On each table were three different colors of icing to be used for decorating the cookies. We used green for the eyes, red for the buttons, and trimmed him in yellow. He was yummy and sweet. 

Ava with her Gingerbread Cookie, we ate all but the head.

Gingerbread Cookie: I helped her decorate

Ava didn't want to leave. We told her Santa Claus had to go to bed
She was okay then.

🎄🎄🎄🎄2016 November 29, Tuesday, Chad's Wonderland, Jelly Stone Dancing Lights and Opry Mills "Christmas"

We ate lunch at Ponderosa Steakhouse in Lawrenceburg.

New York Strip, baked potato, and Texas Toast 

Ponderosa Steakhouse 

Chad's Winter Wonderland

 Chad's Winter Wonderland is located between Lebanon and Mt Juliet, just north of the Hwy 70 and Hwy 109 intersections.
It features eight acres of displays, including life-size Native American scenes, live animals, and ninety drive-thru arches decorated with Christmas Lights.
With Conway Twitty and Twitty Bird singing Happy Christmas Clown,
  Ding-A-Ling, Christmas is for Kids, We wish you a Merry Christmas, Silver Bells, Frosty the Snow Man, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and many other Christmas Songs.

We saw Frosty, Reindeer, Christmas trees, Christmas Train, carolers, Christmas Stockings, toy soldiers, angels, a manger scene with live animals, a helicopter,  airplanes, and Santa's Train.
We talked to Santa at Santa's Workshop. We saw a live-dancing Frosty Snowman.
The cost was $15.00 per car
It was delightful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFZuFa0YVso

We rode through Chad's Winter Wonderland at 6 P.M., which took about 15 minutes.
We were about thirty minutes from Nashville, so we decided to visit The Dancing Lights of Christmas at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park.

Dancing Lights at Jelly Stone Park 

We paid $25.00, slid the top back on our van, climbed up, and stuck my head through the hole with my cell phone in hand. I began taking videos as we rode through hundreds of thousands of LED Christmas lights, dancing to Rockn' Christmas tunes. The park also offers special rides on its firetruck, but reservations for the Fire Truck must be made in advance.

Dancing Lights

We stopped at Fox 17's Santa's Village, where there was a Santa Claus, family activities, a spider hum, inflatables, and a petting zoo. 

There were fires for roasting Marshmallows and a big screen TV showing a Christmas
movie

 It was beginning to sprinkle as we left Jellystone Park.
We rode to Opry Mills and stopped to look at the aquariums at the Aquarium Restaurant, as well as at the Lego Land Store to view all the displays.

Lego Land 

A Visit with Santa 

Christmas Trees at Opry Mall

We ate supper at Panda Express in the food court.
It rained hard while we were inside the mall.

We went inside Bass Pro Shops to view their Christmas displays and Santa Village.

Fireplace at Bass Pro Shops

Bear at Bass Pro Shops

Christmas Tree at Bass Pro Shops

Santa's Village and Reindeer 

We exited the mall, and it was still raining as we headed to the van.
Traffic was light, and the ride home was enjoyable.
At home, there had been severe storms and some tornadoes. We had missed all the bad weather, just a little rain, as we traveled home.

🦌🦌🦌2016 November 15,Tuesday, ICE COLD, Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer

Hubby and I stopped at Logan's Roadhouse in Spring Hill, TN, for lunch.
We ordered Roadhouse 'Shroom, which are hand-battered fresh mushrooms with Rockin' Horseradish. I ordered Chips and Cheese dip, creamy white queso cheese with crispy tortilla chips.
For our main meal, we ordered an All-American Cheeseburger with Swiss Cheese, served on a toasted brioche bun with sliced lettuce, tomato, red onion, and pickles.

Cheeseburger 

Roadhouse 'Shroom 

Chips and Cheese dip

Hubby ordered the Fried Cheese and Bacon Burger, which was fried cheese, thick-cut hardwood smoked bacon, sliced tomato, lettuce, red onions, and thousand island dressing on a toasted brioche bun.
We had to get two to-go boxes because we ordered way too much food.

We stopped at Sam's Club in Franklin to purchase two batteries for our RV.

When we reached Nashville, our first stop was the Gaylord Opryland Event Center to purchase ICE tickets.
As we walked toward the Event Center, we were greeted by a giant ICE sculpture. So we stopped to take pictures.
Next, we purchased ICE tickets! Featuring Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer comes to life in magnificent sculptures hand-carved from more than 2 million pounds of Ice.

ICE

Presents under the Christmas Tree

Three Snowmen 

Several TVs were hanging on an Ice Wall, giving instructions before entering the ICE House.

Wall of TVs

When the show ended, everyone was given Blue parkas to wear, and before entering the Ice, we were asked if we wanted our picture taken. We said no.
Upon entering the 9 degrees ICEHOUSE, we were greeted by a huge ICE Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

WITH a dial that said, "Make it glow"!

Inside ICE, we saw several Reindeer, Santa, dancing dolls, Cowboys, clowns, dogs, and bears.
The Lion, King of the Beast, wore angel wings and a crown, sitting in front of the ICE slides. There were three or four Slide shoots where people could slide down the Ice.

We saw a green Christmas tree covered in colorful balls and a gold rope.
We saw elves, a family of deer, Frosty the Snow Man, the Ice Bar, Santa, and his Reindeer.
One scene was five elves and a sign that read: And, at Santa's Castle ... an elf named Hermney didn't want to make toys as the other elves did. He had wanted to be a dentist since he was a kid.

The elf who wanted to be a dentist. 

We saw Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snow Monster. 

Next, we saw Yukon Cornelius and the Abominable Snow Monster, and a sign that read:

What they found was a creature! A giant! A friend! An Abominable Snow Monster who was meaner than mean.
The Yukon Cornelius came 'round the bend. These two lonely misfits had found a new friend. What a mighty swing of his miner's ax, Yukon whacked the Ice, which started some cracks. And just as the Bumble got to the bay, the Ice broke free, and they floated away.

Santa and his Reindeer

Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the wise men, shepherds, and an Angel 

We exited the ice rink into the Christmas store and walked to the Gaylord Hotel.
I had my picture taken with Santa.
We spent several hours walking through the three gardens that were decorated for the Christmas Holidays.
We stopped for a Butterfinger Ice Cream and rested.
We exited the hotel and walked back outside Ice Ring, where we watched the sunset.

Setting Sun on the White Christmas Tree.
We traveled to Spring Hill and stopped at Panda Express for dinner.

Both of us were exhausted from all the walking and it was still over an hour's ride from Spring Hill to home.

2016 November 9, Wednesday, Trip to Bridge Street and NASA

Ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel, and after breakfast went to CBS. 

After CBS, Hubby and I rode to Huntsville. 

We shopped at Toyrus (love that store) (love to shop for little ones at Toyrus) and bought my G. Granddaughter a Dory dress, necklace, and bag. We rode to NASA to pick up the Hubby's check and fill it up with gas. We stopped so I could take a few pictures. 

Redstone Test Site

Redstone Test Site

We rode back to Bridge Street to eat lunch at Cantina Laredo. We ordered Mexican chicken feta served with beans, rice, onions, peppers, and sour cream.  

We were also served salsa and chips. 

Cantina Laredo

Cantina Laredo

Salsa

Chicken Feta

When we finished eating, we walked down Bridge Street, which was decorated for the Christmas Holidays. There will be a Christmas Lighting Ceremony on November 11 at 4:30 P.M. Their extra-large Christmas tree was already up, extra-large white reindeer were everywhere, Christmas lights were strung, and many stores had already set up Christmas window displays. 

White Reindeer

Christmas Tree

Christmas Decorations

We shopped at Old Navy and Cabela's, but we did not buy anything. We stopped at Kohles on our way out of Huntsville. I bought a new purse, a big red dog, and a Madeline doll. 

Hubby went to Family Vision to get his glasses repaired. We stopped at Aldi's for groceries. They had eggs at 49 cents a dozen, milk at $0.99 a gallon, and hams at $1.09 a pound. We bought several other items. 

Madeline and the Big Red Dog 

We stopped at Wendy's for a Chocolate Frosty. 

As we started our journey home, the sun shone brightly on our faces. Hubby said I cannot get used to this time change. 

Sunset 

I wanted to get into the Christmas Spirit, but with this crazy weather, it has been hard. It does not feel or seem like Christmas this year. We could sure use some cooler weather. I enjoy the seasonal changes, from winter to spring, summer, and autumn.