Christmas Town at Busch Gardens

We are only an hour (without traffic) away from Busch Gardens Williamsburg, so we had to go to Christmas Town, which is when they transform the park into a winter wonderland with lights, trees, decorations, food, and shows.

(I downloaded the photos in the opposite order in which I took them, so it will look like it went from night time to day time...)

For the unfamiliar, Busch Gardens Williamsburg is Europe-themed, so each section of the park is a country in Europe. Each country gets a different Christmas theme for Christmas Town.

France has a "12 Days of Christmas" theme all in white.

Ireland has a green-and-gold theme. We made three circuits around the park,
and we didn't see these candles on the side of the castle until our third time around,
because it wasn't dark enough to see them lit up until then.

The horses are extraordinarily well-trained. People were taking photos
with this guy (they said his name is Eddie) and we watched him gently
put his head on each person's shoulder (on the direction of the guy on the right).

Sun's going down in England (in a Dickens theme).

Festa Italia was transformed into a 1950s style American Christmas,
surrounded with Coca-Cola vintage Christmas billboards.

The big "O Tannenbaum" outside the Festhaus in Germany.

A bear in the "Polar Pathway" that connects Italy and England.

The big Christmas countdown in the 1950s Americana Christmas area.

Hard to make out, but the train bridge has a big lit-up sign that reads "Peace on Earth."

Photo op near the carousel.

North Pole outside of Santa's Workshop.

The big "12 Days of Christmas" tree in France. (The lights on it
change in time to the song that plays over... and over... and over...)
There are twelve white trees along the walkway, each one
decorated with the number and ornaments to match each day.

First photo in the park, entering England.

Star Wars!

We got tickets to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens last night at 7:50pm. Obviously we won't say anything about it (except that it was AWESOME) but here's Ollie with his ticket, excitedly anticipating the start of the movie:

Bottle Cap Candles

Ollie helped me make my Mom's Christmas present, which is a jar of bottle cap candles! I had them Pinned on a secret board as a Christmas idea for her last year, but didn't get around to it, so we tried it this year.

Melting wax in a cleaned-out peaches can in a pan of water,
with our bottle caps (with wicks glued in) waiting in the background.

Filling the bottle caps (carefully!) with hot candle wax (and spilling a lot of it, as you can see).

Pretty jar full of bottle cap candles in three different scents!

Now the apartment smells like cranberry martini, vanilla cookie, and rainy spring day all at the same time... which is a little odd, but not unpleasant.

Rice Krispies Treats!

Ollie and I haven't been up to much, except work, but I have a few days off this coming week and we have big plans! In the meantime, we made Rice Krispies treats last night and they were delicious.

(There aren't that many steps, so there aren't many photos.)

As a side note... we celebrate Hanukkah... sort of. We just do a Hanukkah dinner, and it's rarely actually during Hanukkah, because we wait for my sister-in-law to come home for Christmas, so it'll be about two weeks late this year. But I felt like I should probably mention it before Hanukkah actually ends.

Dolphin Statue

I've gone over this with past LVs, but I think it's been a while since we saw this dolphin. In Norfolk, local artists decorated hundreds of identical mermaid statues and they were placed around the city as sort of a "branding" for Norfolk. Then Virginia Beach decided to try the same, but with dolphin statues. It wasn't as popular as the Norfolk mermaids, but there are still several around. This one is the closest to home, and it looks like it really needs a repainting. It's behind our closest post office, and since I had some mail to send today, we stopped by and Ollie posed.

I want to try to figure out where some others are, since I haven't seen any others in quite a while and it could be a fun adventure for me and Ollie!