One thing that I am still getting used to with our traveling is that it isn’t cold and snowy for Christmas. Having grown up in Central Ohio, many of the Christmases I remember from my childhood included snow on the ground and bundling up in our heavy coats and boots as we went from house to house to visit family members. Once you started to feel that icy, crisp air you knew that Christmas was just around the corner. I still haven’t adapted to being able to wear shorts at Christmastime so it takes a little bit of extra effort to get me into the Christmas Spirit. Thankfully, we were able to find a lot of fun experiences to make us feel all holly jolly.
Our first Christmas activity was the Christmas Parade in nearby Fairhope, Alabama. The whole town was decorated and there were a good number of floats in the parade ranging from local businesses to scout troops to the high school marching band. They threw candy, toys, peanuts and beads so it was kind of like a Christmas themed Mardi Gras parade. Santa even made an appearance at the end riding on top of a giant firetruck. The parade was so much fun…until I got hit in the eye by a string of beads thrown by an overeager boy scout. Temperatures were around 40 degrees which made it sting even more when the string of hard plastic beads whipped me across the eye and down my cheek. It took a little while to be able to see out of that eye and it was swollen for a few days but thankfully there was no permanent damage and we still had a fun evening.
We had also stopped for dinner and to admire a gorgeous view of Mobile Bay on the way to the parade. We watched the sun sink below the horizon and the light shimmered on the water and it really made us stop and realize just how amazing our lives are and how lucky we are to get to have these experiences.
Our next Christmas adventure was the Christmas Market. We are frequent visitors of the Farmer’s Market in Foley every Saturday morning but they also have a special nighttime market in December for Christmas shopping. The Saturday markets usually have a lot of produce vendors, butchers, bakers and more. The evening market was mostly crafters selling handmade gifts. Some of them are there for the weekly markets but some were vendors we had never seen before so it was a lot of fun to walk around and look at everything. The market itself was decorated with giant Christmas trees and members of a local choir were there singing carols. They even had a snow machine flowing fake snow for the kids (and the kids at heart) to play in.
One of my favorite things about Christmas is the lights. I absolutely love walking or driving around a neighborhood to see all of the dazzling decorations. Some people in the campgrounds decorate if they are staying long-term but for the most part we don’t get to see a lot of decorations where we are staying so we usually try to find somewhere to go see lights. We got lucky and found TWO great parks this year!
The first was Graham Creek Nature Preserve in Foley. They had lights and inflatables and animatronics. We got hot chocolate and wandered the boardwalk and had a great time- and admission was just $5 per person. There were sections devoted to different Christmas favorites like The Grinch, A Christmas Story, Nightmare Before Christmas, Disney, Charlie Brown and more. They also had lots of great photo ops throughout the park and tunnels with fake snow blowing at you!
The second park was a little bit further away but definitely worth the drive. Bellingrath Gardens in Theodore, Alabama had some of the best Christmas lights displays that I have ever seen. This park consists of a historic home and 7 acres of gorgeous gardens. We did not tour the home but we did see all of the outdoor lights and it was amazing! It was like walking through a fairy tale and a winter wonderland all in one! They also had different themed sections like Under the Sea, Mardi Gras, The Twelve Days of Christmas and more. There were smore stations where you could buy the ingredients and make your own smore and Santa was there for the kids.
Our campground also happens to be near a theme park called OWA and we attended their Sugar Plum Festival. The park consists of an outdoor amusement park with a roller coaster and other rides and an indoor water park. There is also a free section that serves as their shopping and entertainment district (think Downtown Disney on a smaller scale) and that is where the festival was. There were several restaurants and a ton of specialty stores. Craft vendors were set up on the sidewalks so in addition to the regular candy shop, toy store, spice/tea shop and souvenir shops you could also check out handmade goods from various crafters and artists. We walked all around and took a ton of pictures of the decorations.
OWA also has a fun arcade and we spent a little time there, too. We played a few video games in addition to my all time favorite arcade games- skee ball and basketball. We spent $20 and were entertained for quite a long while. At the end, we gave our tickets to one of the kids that was playing there (which is one of our favorite things to do).
Thanks to some heavy rain in the forecast, we also decided to spend Christmas at home. We really enjoyed our turkey breast for Thanksgiving so we ordered another one for our Christmas lunch. We picked up some rolls from Texas Roadhouse and once again had some items to snack on throughout the day while we watched Christmas movies and exchanged gifts. And of course Harley and I rocked our matching Grinch pajamas.
We were also so excited to receive a few packages from home! My aunt Penny sent us a TON of Cheryl’s cookies (a local company from Ohio that we like) and my parents sent us a box with treats and toys for the animals and almost 2 dozen cookies from John’s favorite local bakery in our home town. My best friend also sent me gifts and the cutest Grinch card! And showing up a little late but still very much appreciated was some candy from my Grandma- I had been complaining that I couldn’t find chocolate oranges in the stores down here so she sent me some!
I think we will end this post here with a few photos of some miscellaneous Christmas shenanigans. Enjoy!
