Thanksgiving Road Trip

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I had a Thanksgiving Post all ready to publish before heading out on our annual Thanksgiving Road Trip but something came up. Specifically, we left a day earlier than planned – a spur of the moment decision.

Our annual road trip destination is about one hour north where we visit a holiday shop to see the decorated tree displays.  Each of us gravitates to a specific type of display based on our personalities. To give you a few examples, I’ll start with my son’s favorite.

Yes, he loves comedy in all forms and an elf stuck in the mailbox made him chuckle. His wife was drawn to the penguins.

I loved this white display, not so much for the tree but what is sitting under it.

Did you spot the peacock right away? Here’s a better view of it.

The children loved them all but especially the displays with the characters they recognize by name.

A few more displays for you. The Christmas Train.

There was a military display honoring all the branches of our military.

What’s Christmas without Teddy Bears?

Animated, Dancing Mr. and Mrs. Claus, with the M&Ms.

There were a lot of white trees versus traditional green needles. Is that the “in” color this year?  Doesn’t matter, they were all beautiful.

While each display is different from year to year many of the decorations are reused in new ways in subsequent years. But there is always at least one big display that is new in every way. This year the display was Santaopoly.

And because many favorite characters were incorporated into this display it was appreciated by all ages.

We saw Mickey and Minnie Mouse in another display so in Santaopoly Pluto made an appearance along with my grandson’s favorite – Cookie Monster and his sister found Clifford the Big Red Dog right off. (Clifford is in the back riding the train)

 

After the tree displays we took the children to visit Santa in the back of the store.  The lines were long so the children entertained themselves with the cheezy items on display.

I was very impressed with the children. They were perfectly happy to window shop at the displays and never once asked for one of us to buy them a gift or toy.

We didn’t purchase many things, our outing isn’t about shopping we come to see the trees. It’s a tradition I began with my children when my first son was a year old. I did purchase a couple of house plants from their greenhouse, something I planned on doing since I have no where near me to purchase potted plants, especially pesticide-free.

There was this African Violet

And this Christmas Cactus. I’ve had Christmas Cacti before but never got them to bloom so when I saw the profusion of blossoms on this one I decided it was coming home with me.

There were other cacti for sale and this blue one caught my eye.

I decided not to purchase this blue cactus but when asked what I liked about it I answered “everything”.  It’s true, I liked the white ceramic dish, the vibrant blue color and even the pebbles spread over the potting soil. Everything said simple and understated with just a pop of color.

As we were getting in the car to head to our next destination my son gifted me with this cactus as an early Christmas present. If he is going to insist on buying me a Christmas present a plant is always welcome.

From there we headed down the street to the Daffin’s Chocolate showroom and gift shop. The first stop is always to see the Chocolate Kingdom, where all the buildings and even that Ferris wheel are made of chocolate.   Little guy found the free piece of chocolate more interesting for a bit. 🙂

We stopped for dinner out before heading home, my least favorite part of the trip but a necessity with little ones this time of year.  It was at the diner that I had to face my limitations for the first time that afternoon.  Deciding this would be a good time to use the rest room I quickly learned the handicap stall wasn’t large enough to fit a wheel chair in and still be able to close the stall door.  I had to remind myself that things have come a long way from years past in accessibility issues. We had a good day and this wouldn’t dampen my mood.

The next morning, Thanksgiving, my oldest son and his partner arrived to share the day with us. I had much to be thankful for this year and the biggest one is that my sons are closer than they have been in years past.

With the children out of school my oldest son has been here every day, except Saturday to work. He should be here until Tuesday night as the children don’t have school until Wednesday. I be back again after the children go home.  See you Wednesday!

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? I hoped your weekend was everything you wanted it to be.