ICE: A Charlie Brown Christmas

As I mentioned before, Johnny's family invited me along to see ICE at the Gaylord Texan hotel. It was a fabulous exhibit: dozens of elaborate sculptures carved from over 2 million pounds of solid ice! This year's theme was "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and it featured all of the "Peanuts" characters (except Woodstock; I didn't see him anywhere!). The exhibit was kept at a cool 4 degrees F, so we were all bundled up in giant, hotel-provided parkas. (Sexy!)  We had a lot of fun and one of Johnny's aunts took a TON of pictures of us- I'll be sure to post those when I get them, but in the meantime, enjoy my pics from ICE: A Charlie Brown Christmas!

Decorations in the waiting area.

Even the nutcrackers had a Texan flair!

Snowman in the waiting area.

SLIDES! These were so much fun to go down. This room also looked like a rave.

Beautiful, totally-unrelated-to-Peanuts nativity scene at the very end.

Back in Action!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving! I had a marvelous time in Texas, meeting Johnny's extended family and eating delicious food. Johnny's parents were so gracious and pleasant and his family was interesting and extremely nice. There were a few moments where I wasn't sure what to say or do- like when his grandfather, frustrated with the potato peeler, exclaimed "damn liberal potatoes!" or when his young cousin asked "are you my cousin now?"- but overall, the experience was a very positive one.

While in Texas, we were so busy there wasn't much of a chance to do anything! Johnny left his Six Flags season pass at home and the only things we managed to do were see the Ice exhibit at the Gaylord Texan and catch a late showing of Morning Glory at the movies. (This movie was terrible, by the way.) The Ice exhibit featured the whole cast of Peanuts characters carved from ice- specifically, it was scenes from A Charlie Brown Christmas. I'll post pictures tomorrow- tonight I'm still recovering from a very long week!

Texas!

I am so excited- Johnny and I leave for Texas tomorrow! We'll be gone Tuesday-Saturday and are planning to spend time with his immediate and extended family. I'm looking forward to meeting them; his parents are lovely people and I imagine his aunts, cousins, and grandparents to be just as nice.

While we're in Texas, we're planning on stopping by the botanical gardens, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, the Kimbell Art Museum and Six Flags. I'm also excited to eat puffy tacos at Caro's (and maybe buy some salsa to take home!). We might take in the Thanksgiving Day parade too; there's so much to do! I'll be sure to take loads of pictures (with my new and improved camera app) and write all about my adventures.