Winter Wonderland

Friday, 14 December 2007

Chase did not sleep well last night. He was up every two hours, and then after 4 pm (when Gary left for work), Chase was up like every half hour. He was super fussy, and as a result, so was I. So, I knew for sure we wouldn't make a drive down to the Bay Area today. In fact, Chase and I slept in our pajamas until nearly noon catching up on much needed sleep.

Gary got home by that time, and I took Chase for a walk in the neighborhood, to the grocery shopping area and to walk past the canal with the ducks. When Mom came home in the early afternoon, we went for another walk again to the grocery store. After our brisk walk through the cold, clam chowder was the perfect supper.

The highlight of our evening was going to see the Christmas lights. There was a huge spread in the paper on the best Christmas displays in town, so we went driving around looking for them. First, we went to Gary's truck at the truck depot to get his map guidebook, then we made various drive-bys through different areas, mainly near midtown Sacramento.

The first house we went to gave us candy canes, and most homeowners were sitting outside near their firepits, waiting for passerbys (even if there is a fire ban in certain areas because of the pollution). The best display was the 20 houses that were decorated in a four block display. After feeding Chase, who screamed in the car through most of the ride, we parked and walked through that neighborhood. There were lit arches on the sidewalks in front of the houses, and we heard that one of the houses even came with the lights when it was sold to its most current owners. You would need to have grand Christmas displays to reside in this neighborhood. There were numerous limousines going through the area, which did not help the traffic jam in the streets, along with a horse drawn carriage taking people for rides through the area. A Santa held Chase so we could take his picture (Santa also helped to direct traffic.) There were SpongeBob SquarePants and The Cat In The Hat blowups, swirly designs on rooftops, musical lights, fancy wooden cutouts adorning the lawns, and even tiny elves holding lights. It was like walking through the Electrical Street Parade at Disneyland...everything was so lit up! It was quite beautiful!

And, this time, Chase was awake for the whole thing!

Once we got home, we changed into our warm clothes, Gary made popcorn (the old fashioned way of course, in a pot on the stove), and we enjoyed snacking on popcorn, hot chocolate, ice cream, and Gary had his hot toddy, while the pellet stove heated up the living room.

Chase and I will be sleeping in the living room tonight, since we relocated his swing to the area early this morning when he wasn't sleeping well. I dragged all the blankets to the couch and will probably fall asleep in front of the TV. It'll be like our own little winter slumber party. Maybe I'll even keep the Christmas tree lights on so that I can dream like we're still in our own "Winter Wonderland".