Lights, Lights and More Lights!

This Christmas season has been so much fun. We really decided to take advantage of lots of activities available around the Valley this year, since Josh is at the perfect age to enjoy the festivities, and Ben will go along for any ride as long as the tummy is full. Most of the things we ended up doing revolved around Christmas lights. What other time of year can you see millions and millions of different colored twinkling lights? Our first stop was at the APS Electric Light Parade float judging competition. Every year the floats for the parade are judged in the parking lot of the kids' school, and they make a big party out of it. The trip turned into a family affair, with my parents, my sister and her kids. It was a lot of fun. Ben was happy to chill in his stroller and take in all the sights, while Joshua set out on a mission to find any float that he could climb onto. After seeing all of the floats, we went back to Grandma and Granddad's house for some hot chocolate.

The very next night the City of Chandler was having their light parade and tumbleweed tree lighting. Our small group made an impromptu decision to all meet up and watch the parade together, which actually worked like a charm! (Thank God for cell phones!) Joshua thought the parade was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. It was so great to have his friends there and keep him entertained. Ben even enjoyed it, pointing at the brightly colored floats and clapping to the music.

Finally, as we try to do every year, we went to Zoolights. This year was so much more fun than last year with Mr. Grumpy Pants. We had invited our friends Jennifer and Brandon Miller and their boys to come along with us. It's always fun to do things with friends! The boys (Josh and Nathaniel) had a blast and got to ride the carousel together. It was a super cold night out, as it had been raining all week up until earlier that day, so we got to pull out our heavy coats and bundle up, which is a treat for us desert rats!

I'm so happy that we got to fully enjoy the season! Here are some photos of our adventures!