I am beginning to think that all of my blog posts should come with a disclaimer that this information is likely not new, and may have been scrounged up from my camera. Trust me when I tell you that all of the events of our life are captured on the camera memory card, but there appears to be a direct relationship between the amount of cool things we get to do and the length of time it takes me to get it blogged.
I can recall many moons ago, when I was young and childless, that going to Candy Lane in Hershey was a big part of my Christmas tradition. I even recall a Christmas when we were celebrating in Harrisburg at my Aunt Pattie's house that all of the Richard cousins made the trip to Hersheypark. I believe that was allowed mostly to get all of us out of the house so that the grownups could have a few drinks and not have to deal with our whining. And if my memory serves me correctly, I think this was the trip that Danaca yacked after riding the ride at Chocolate World. In the years since Joshua was born, I must have told Jason at least 5 times (for his five previous Christmases) that I'd really like to take the kids to Hershey to enjoy the lights and rides one of these years. We knew that we would only be punishing ourselves if we attempted the down and back in one day, so we decided to make a little weekend trip out of it and booked a room at the Hershey Lodge, where, strangely enough, Jason and I have spent more weekends than any of us care to count attending Key Club conventions. It was a little odd being there without 1000 of our closest Key Club friends.
To make it even more fun, the Mowrys were able to be there too, so the kids were all geared up for some Christmas fun at the park.
The plan was to head to Red Robin for some (peanut allergy safe) supper where we can order off of a special peanut safe menu for Joshua. However, everyone else in the free world also had the same idea at the same time because the wait was an hour long. And given the fact that we were all on borrowed time to get into the park, we opted to figure out our dinner on the fly. So off to the Park we went.
I have to say, the park was just as festive and beautiful as I remember it. And honestly, I really love Christmas lights, so the fact that there were a million of them there was right up my alley. I will say that I probably had more time to enjoy them before the kids, but I wouldn't trade our evening there with the kids for even those slow paced ones of yesteryear. (Did I really just type the word 'yesteryear'?) We set off into the park to attempt to do as much as possible- and we must have looked comical between the two families. Six kids, two strollers, one way too big diaper bag (that was me), enough layers and winter coats to clothe a small third world country. But we were there...enjoying it all together.
The kids loved riding rides. I got the biggest kick out of their reaction to the Kissing Tower. You can tell that Joshua has been programmed for bigger rides because he kept saying he was scared. And the whole way up, he kept telling Jason he was afraid that it was going to fall down really fast. Lauren oohed and aahed at the lights that you could see from the way top of the ride. And once Mara got the idea of the "kissing" tower, she was smacking her lips at anyone who would even look her way. That went on for the better part of the next half hour.
I should make a note here about our picnic supper. And yes, you read that right. I had done some peanut allergy research about the park before we got there, and found out that the place really isn't all that peanut allergy friendly. It wasn't that big of a deal when we were thinking about it because, frankly, we were planning to fill our bellies at Red Robin before going to the park. I had safe snacks packed in my (really heavy) diaper bag that would hold us over, and we brought a Thermos for Joshua and some safe hot chocolate mix so that we could get some hot water somewhere in the park to mix it for him. So, when the dinner plan fell through, things got interesting. We knew there was a Subway somewhere in the park. In my mind, that was an inside restaurant. As in, with heat. As it turned out, this was the only open-air Subway I have ever been to, with metal picnic tables. Just imagine sitting your fanny down on that baby when it is 20-some degrees outside. The kids made the best of it, as did the adults, but something tells me we may be talking about our December picnic supper for years to come.
After everyone was sufficiently cold and tired, we made our way back to the parking lot. I always forget how much I dread the walk out of the park there. It seems like they move the cars about a mile further away than they were when you walked in. After a quick ride back to the Lodge, we got kids into pajamas and tucked into bed. All except for Mara, who had a nice power nap in the park and on the ride back to the hotel. She was raring to go, and stayed awake for several more hours before she decided for snooze for a bit.
Sunday morning, we had a treat for the kids, as we had registered for a Breakfast with Santa that morning. Joshua and Lauren were really excited to see Santa. Joshua had quite a list prepared for him, and discussed the details of everything on it with the Man in Red just like we knew he would. Lauren was a bit of a surprise. Our very backward little girl has turned into a chatterbox. We actually had to tell her to wrap it up since the mob of children in line behind us was getting a bit impatient for their turn. We put Mara down on the floor just to make sure we had her in a picture, but didn't dare consider putting her on Santa's lap.
After breakfast, we decided to go over to Chocolate World since the kids didn't get a chance to go through that on Saturday evening. They really seemed to enjoy the ride (especially those silly singing cows). We didn't do much else there--- it's a peanut nightmare--- but they did get one more chance to see Santa again. Amazingly, there were no questions about how Santa got from the hotel to Chocolate World so quickly or about why they looked so different. I don't think there will be many more years that we'll get away with that, but we managed to skate through this time. Mara was missing from that picture as she had a death grip on my shoulder and wasn't about to go anywhere near that sleigh.
All in all, I'd say we had a very nice time at the park. Like everyone, I absolutely love this time of the year, especially with the kids. You can't help but be happy when you see their little minds processing the all of the special magical things that they are thinking about. We spent the afternoon unpacking and working on jobs around the house. One little lady had an important milestone to conquer---- I was doing some dishes after cooking dinner and looked up from the sink to see Mara walking across the living room. I quickly grabbed my phone to capture a video and caught her second voyage. She looked so proud of herself, and we certainly were of her as well. Now, I am only hoping that having reached this goal will allow her precious little mind to get some sleep......that's Mama's only Christmas wish!
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