Last weekend, we thought it would be fun to take the girls to the Gaylord National Resort to experience Christmas in an extra magical way; it's safe to say we accomplished just that! We stayed overnight and were able to get two days of Christmas activities under out belts all under 1 roof!
On Saturday, we tried checking in a little early but our room wasn't ready yet, so we decided to jump right in and start activities!
The girls wanted to go on the train and carousel right away, so that's where we started! The convention center was filled with friendly and smiling staff, which made what could be a really overwhelming and stressful experience a pleasant one!
After the rides, the girls wanted to head right to the ICE exhibit, which the Gaylord is known for! It's an exhibit set at a constant 9 degrees and carved completely out of ice! The only issue was, we had already checked our bags at the front desk in hopes of getting into our hotel room rather quickly. That wasn't the case. So we told the girls if we did the ICE exhibit, they wouldn't have hats and gloves, just their coats and a heavy parka that if given before you enter and everyone must wear it. They didn't even care and insisted they wanted to do it without hats and gloves. So Tom and I shrugged our shoulders and said, "Let's go!" I had the baby in the carrier on me and had my amazing fur cover from Nije so the baby was nice and toasty!
It was snowing on Saturday, so upon walking outside to enter the exhibit, we walked through the falling snow and it really got the girls excited! Once we entered, we were in awe. The artistry that goes into the ice sculpted exhibit is amazing. It took us about 30 minutes to walk through, and Tom & the girls waited in line to do the ice slide too! In the meantime, Delaney fell asleep, so she took her afternoon nap on me and it worked well!
Once we walked through the whole ICE exhibit, the girls wanted to decorate gingerbread men! At that time, it was mid-afternoon and the crowd was growing, as were the lines. We waited about 20 min. and the the girls started saying they had to go to the bathroom and they were hungry. So, I asked the staff in the gingerbread room if we could just take the gingerbread kits with us to do them up in our room (I saw other people were doing the same) and they said, "of course"! We decided to get an early dinner and take a bathroom break since we still had a lot we wanted to see! We ate at the sports bar right in the hotel and it was perfect- Tom watched the football games and I ordered a glass of wine (that was a necessity)! haha
Next up on our list was Cookies and Milk with Mrs. Clause, then pictures with Santa and last but not least, the light show and Holiday JOY Show.
I wanted to get the girls dressed in their Christmas outfits so I could use the Santa picture for our holiday cards (wishful thinking!) We ran up to our room, got the girls changed and had 5 min to spare to get back down to Cookies and Milk with Mrs. Clause. It was well worth the rush. It was so adorable! Delaney hopped up in a chair next to Mrs. Clause and ate her cookie as Mrs. Clause read the kids a story- every child was also sent home with a Rudolph book!
Cookies and Milk was over and it was onto visit Santa. Brynley excitedly ran up to him spouting off what she wanted for Christmas, Liv and Delaney did not lol Liv clung to Tom like Santa was about to attack and Delaney waved from afar but pumped her brakes as I walked her closer to him.
We ended up getting a terribly situated family picture as I sat right in front of Santa with the baby and blocked him (oh well, I tried for the quickest picture possible and just sat where I was standing lol). We chalked it up to another awkward Santa picture and hope for the best next year!
Now what I was really excited for was the light show and JOY show. WOW! The lights were awesome and the cast of the show was so talented and kept us dancing in our seats the whole time. When we booked our room, we wanted to have a room with an atrium view so we had an overhead view of the whole scene at night...we were so glad we did! The girls were getting tired by 8:00 and wanted to go back to the room and get their pjs on; they enjoyed watching the show a second time from our balcony! The lights alone and sounds of the music playing was enough to get anyone into the holiday spirit!
Our weekend at the Gaylord was so fun and we already talked about going back next year....and bringing the grandparents too!
This post was sponsored by Gaylord National. All opinions and comments are my own.
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