Credle Family: Christmas with the Credles: Day 3- Christmas Town

One of the Credle's Christmas presents to us was a trip to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens. They also renewed our season passes for Busch Gardens/Water Country (and Sea World which it looks like we'll be visiting in the spring- woohoo), but Christmas Town is not included in the package.

Unfortunately, the morning of our scheduled visit, we woke to rain. However, since it was in the forecast before we left, I was prepared with rain gear.

Good thing because when we couldn't find Michael inside, the kids just had to go outside and check the van to see if was there.....

Sure enough, knowing we were returning home later that day, he was in the window ready....

Someone was more interested in stomping in puddles than looking for Michael!

Back inside, it was time for some hot cocoa.

They took turns stirring.

I had the cutest outfits picked for them to wear to Christmas Town, but with the heavy rain, good thing I had back ups. Turns out it was too chilly for the raincoats we had packed too, so they ended up wearing their winter coats, which were also pretty waterproof. The Santa pin and matching hair bow were presents from the day before.

In addition to our tickets to Christmas Town, MaMaw and PaPa also treated us to a Fireside Feast with Santa. Our reservation was for 1:30pm. Because I was slow to choose the right coats and make sure we were all waterproofed and warm, we arrived at 1:35pm, but still with plenty of time to enjoy our meal & the spectacular entertainment.

We were at Table 21, just a few rows from the stage. We helped ourselves to a good buffet of food, including turkey with all the fixins, as well as some yummy Swedish meatballs (I think we all got seconds of these). For a buffet, the food was very fresh and tasty. Everyone ate well while we enjoyed the festive ambience and watched children head up stage for their turns with Santa.

One of the highlights, besides the good food and nice ambience, was the entertainment. The elves did a cute little skit, and then Santa did a terrific rendition of Twas the Night Before Christmas, which PaPa captured a little of in the video below:

Then, Mrs. Claus, who had made her rounds earlier and stopped by our table to say hello, came out on stage with her homemade cookies announcing that it was time for dessert!

She didn't have to tell us twice! But before we had dessert, we decided to take our turn with Santa.

We couldn't possibly capture the wonder in their little faces as they took their turn with Santa. It was so so sweet. They talked to him for what seemed like a really long time. Afterwards, when we asked them what they talked about, they said he told them that he liked cookies and not to forget to leave some carrots for his reindeer. You better believe they didn't forget either...they were so excited about doing this on Christmas Eve that we ended up putting them out that morning....and then adding some more that evening before we went to bed.

Back at the table, after dessert, Daniel drew a picture of Santa on the back of the "Letter to Santa" stationary they had on the table.

With full tummies and hearts full of Christmas spirit, we set out to explore Christmas Town. It wasn't dark enough to truly capture all the beauty of the lights, but it was still plenty festive.

On our way to Santa's feast, they wanted so badly to get inside this tree, but we were in such a hurry, we made them wait till we left. They ran, ran, ran all the way!

Next, we stopped in and watched Gloria, a musical performance which portrayed the true meaning of Christmas. The kids sat great through the whole thing. I think they were as mesmerized by it as we were.

This tree in France was trimmed in the theme of the 12 days of Christmas. It was so pretty.

If only that were real snow!

Entering the Ice Palace....

real penguins!!

and some make believe ones too.

A trip to Busch Gardens is never complete without a ride in the skylift.....the FLight of Lights

This was the only ride they did...though there were several open, we just didn't let them because the seats were wet. Carousel was okay though.

Since we couldn't get any good pictures of them, we took some selfies of our own while we waited.

Another skylift ride....it was getting dark so we could see more this time....we were going to the train and it was easier to ride than walk since it was on the other side of the park.