Christmas in Dallas

This year the weekend before Christmas we headed to the Dallas area (Garland specifically) to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family.  We first headed to my Aunt Les' house on Saturday morning to visit and to then check into the hotel.  After getting settled in we all loaded up and headed to North Park Mall along with all of the other crazy Christmas shoppers to have a late lunch at Maggiano's.  We had our own private room and an endless amount of family style food.  Sooo delicious!  Plus lots of good wine flowing that enlisted lots of laughter and silliness...even by my grandma!  After lunch we walked the crowded mall, took in all of the Christmas decorations and festivities bustling in the mall, and headed to the Trains at North Park.  The trains were amazing with lots of neat set-ups and the kids really enjoyed it.  There was a Dallas scene as well as one for NYC, Washington DC, etc.  The guys headed to get the cars as my grandparents couldn't walk much more and the much anticipated and talked about cold front had arrived.  It was very windy and freezing!  It took almost an hour for everybody to find the correct parking garage and find us with all of the traffic and cops directing traffic.  It was interesting!  Once back at Les and Tim's house we had dessert consisting most importantly of my grandma's one of a kind Italian cream cake which is my favorite.  Then we opened up presents and the kids all played video games together and watched golf.  By this point the temperature was in the 20's.  We headed back to the hotel in the freezing weather and got ready for a full day the next day at The Gaylord.  Landon decided to stay at the house and spend the night with Connor.  They had a good time hanging out together while Emerson went to the hotel with us to sleep.  The next morning we headed to get Landon and eat a delicious breakfast and then we headed with my parents to Grapevine which was about a 30-40 minute drive to The Gaylord.  I've always heard about it and wanted to visit and boy did it not disappoint.  No words describe just how beautiful it is decorated for Christmas!  There is tons to do so you never have to leave the resort, but plan to spend lots of money.  We took in all of the decorations and took pictures before we did the Ice exhibit.  It was spectacular and oh so cold.  Even with all of our gear on (it was 17 degrees outside) plus the parka, we were numb.  It was 9 degrees in there!  The ice sculptures were just amazing, especially the nativity scene at the end and the ice slide that the kids went down and me too.  After letting our feet thaw out we waited in line for the kids to do Build a Bear and we walked around more as there is just so much to see.  After racing in the freezing cold to the car we stopped to eat lunch at Whataburger and then headed back to the hotel to hang out and watch football before meeting Les, Tim, and Connor for dinner at the Mexican restaurant, Matt's, by our hotel. It was such a fun time hanging out and laughing.  The next morning we got up early, ate breakfast at Chickfila in the car, and then headed back to Cypress.  It was a great trip getting to see family and to feel the love, fun, and laughter.  I love spending time with them!