For those of you who don't know, Santa's Wonderland is about an hour outside of Houston near College Station, which is where the other large public university is in Texas (ok, there are many others large public institutions, but I had to say it!). We left our house around 6:30 p.m. and an hour later found ourselves looking at a line that was literally a mile long to see the Christmas lights. Knowing that we were going to be too hungry to see Santa and then wait in line for the Christmas lights, we made the short drive into College Station and had Freebirds for dinner. As a side note - I did feel like a fish out of water driving into College Station with my Longhorn paraphernalia on my car.
After a good dinner, it was back in the car to Santa's Wonderland. Our dinner diversion had done little to dissipate the line, so we decided to go see Santa first and then the spectacular light displays. The boys were wearing big sweaters but no jackets, so we grabbed a couple of blankets from the car and paid our entry fee for Santa's Wonderland.
Side bar - now, not to dampen the Christmas spirit, but I quickly realized how quickly I had forgotten what a racket this place is! It was $13 for us to get in, and that was only because Tyler was free (take in mind that the only thing we really do while we are there is take the Santa photo). $24 for the photo with Santa. $20 per car to the see the lights ... but alas, Andrew's excitement despite the cold weather made it all priceless.
The first thing Andrew noticed when we got there was that it was snowing! No, for those of you who live in the Houston area you did not miss something on the Weather forecast. It was fake snow, but it looked like it was snowing ... and it sure felt cold enough for it to be snowing!
Andrew and I cuddled under the blanket while waiting in line and Doug put Tyler under his big fleece sweatshirt (it was too cute). Andrew was surprisingly patient waiting in line and a short 30 or so minutes later it was Andrew and Tyler's turn to sit on Santa's lap.
I asked Andrew several times while we were standing in line what he wanted for Christmas, but all he would say was "a big present". For days he has been saying that he wants cars, a watch, Spiderman, lights, etc., but today all he wanted was a big present! After taking the photo with Santa, Andrew told him that he wants a big present and that Baby Tyler wants a little present -- even Santa thought it was precious! 2 sheets of stickers and 2 candy canes later, it was off to see the Christmas lights.
By this time it was nearly 10:00 p.m. ... and the line was still about a mile long. So, we waited in line for an hour (thank goodness for the DVD player in my car) and around 11:15 or so, we finally made it to the entry to see the lights. Andrew was still wide awake and Tyler was fighting sleep. In the mad dash back to the car from Santa's Wonderland we managed to lose Tyler's pacifier and he was not pleased! We brought both boys up to the front seats with us and made the slow drive through all of the lights. The wait was worth it because Andrew LOVED it! He even said multiple times, "I like this place!". We made it through all of the lights and strapped the boys back in their carseats around midnight - phew, it was quite a night! Tyler had long since fallen asleep in my arms and Andrew fell asleep within 5 minutes of being on the road ... as did I (but who is surprised)!
Here are the results of our trip:
Santa Pictures over the Years
2004
Notice that starting in 2005, we have seen the same Santa every year, which is also why we will keep making the trek to Santa's Wonderland.
2005 (this was classic!)
2006
2007
2 comments:
Awesome Santa pictures! I can't believe Andrew looks like a little man!
Thank you! He is quite the big boy these days, isn't he? The boys look too cute next to each other in their matching sweaters -- it is even more precious in person!
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