25 Days of Christmas - Day #18

Today we went to ICE! at the Gaylord Texan. For those of you who aren't "locals", the Gaylord is a giant hotel and convention center not far from where we live. Each year they bring in 40 or so artisans from China to carve intricate sculptures in ice that usually go along with a theme. This year the theme was "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown" which is Ryan's favorite cartoon Christmas special, so of course, we had to go.

Yes...all of that is carved out of ice...the characters, the tree, the tree's decorations...all of it.

It was really cool...literally. The room is kept between 12 and 17 degrees and everything that you see in these pictures is made of ice. They do give you giant parkas to wear and it doesn't last so long that you get tired of the cold.

It would appear as though Camden is not enjoying the outing if you look at this picture. The issue is that he is enjoying it and doesn't want to stop for a picture! :o)

There were giant slides in the middle (yes, made completely of ice) and of course, I had to go down one of them. Camden went down the "kiddie" slide as well. Ryan and Alison waited for us at the bottom and took some pictures.

The coolest thing was at the end. They had a giant "crystal" nativity scene carved out and they were playing the story of the birth of Christ over the sound system. As they spoke about each person or group in the story, that person's crystal lit up with a bright light and remained on until that person "exited" the story. Kinda like the Christmas Eve candlelight story that is done at Pleasant Hill (for all my Elkin peeps!). It was really cool...and it was great to see that the nativity was not only included, but highlighted.

Camden really did enjoy it...and has continued to tell people that he went to Charlie Brown's house several times since then. Alison just rode around (strapped to Ryan in her baby carrier) and enjoyed playing peek-a-boo at everyone through her "hole" in Ryan's parka.