Winter Wonderland

Since snow is the rare exception, here in the desert we substitute snow for lights. Lots and lots of lights. Which is precisely why I love our yearly tradition of visiting the Living Desert Zoo for their Wild Lights display. Not only do they decorate the grounds in 750,000 Christmas lights but they add their own flare that is befitting of a desert-themed zoo. For example, while there Jadyn got to go on a camel ride:

The kids also got to go on a special carousel that has native desert animals in lieu of horses. However, we were warned multiple times that the giraffes and camels DO NOT go up and down. Apparently some 3-year-old threw a pretty big fit claiming to have been duped. At any rate, Jadyn rode a hummingbird and Jake rode, well I think it was a warthog:

And then of course they have the train. Who can forget the train? And to see it decked out and lit up for the holidays is a pretty cool treat:

Joe snapped this picture as we were leaving, after which Jadyn suddenly remembered I had promised her hot chocolate on the way home. The memory on our little 4-year-old is pretty amazing. She started jumping up down saying, "Now can we go to Starbucks?" The group across the parking lot started laughing. I have created a monster I tell you.

Every year the excitement and participation from the kids around the holidays just grows and grows and it gets to be much less work and much more fun to go on special outings like this. Definitely our own version of a winter wonderland.