Opryland

Just before we left Nashville, I thought it would be fun to take a trip over to the Opryland Hotel and see the Christmas lights.  It's been awhile since I had been there anyway...Mimi and Bapa had taken Maggie back in September while we were in Philly, and she enjoyed all the waterfalls, fountains, and landscaping.  If you've never been, Opryland Hotel has some AMAZING indoor gardens to walk through, complete with several waterfalls, fountains, and a river big enough to take a boat tour on.  We went with Eric's parents, and Sami and Jonathan and their son Liam.

Here are Ben and Liam, enjoying their free candy canes before we got started (my mom likes to say that I got my first taste of sugar at my first Christmas, when I sucked the wrapping off a candy cane and then held on so hard that no one could pry it away from me....I don't think Ben got past the wrapper!)

 Our first view of the HUGE Christmas tree inside the Delta section.

 Maggie was fascinated with it!  So sweet to see all sorts of Christmas things through the eyes of our kids.

 We saw Santa Claus next, but were unable to take our own pictures.  There was no line, so Maggie got to go right up and sit on Santa's lap.  She had no fear at all, and just sat there with a little smirky grin on her face.  She didn't know what to say when he asked what she wanted for Christmas, until Santa then asked if she liked Dora.  Maggie then regaled him with all sorts of tales of her Dora sleeping bag, the Christmas tree, escalators, etc.  Very cute!  Then it was on to another section of the hotel:

 Ben couldn't keep his eyes off all the sparkly lights on the ceiling.  It was pretty magical.  Overall, it was a fun way to kick off the Christmas celebrations!