Christmas Texas Style at the Gaylord Texan

Last year on our first day of Christmas break,   I decided that I ™d take the kids somewhere I ™d always wanted to go – the Gaylord Texan. For those of you that aren't from the area it's a huge hotel/convention center that is beautiful and I ™d heard that it was all decked out for Christmas.  I really wanted to go the year before, but we could never make it work.  My mom and I took my three kids and my niece and we could have used another set of hands- there was so much to do and see we were constantly having to keep tabs on who had who. It was super cold that morning so the first thing we had to do is come in and sit by the fire.

Next we saw the obligatory Texas longhorn.  They have to remind us that we're in Texas.  

The Christmas tree was massive and beautiful.  Like they say- Every thing's bigger in Texas I guess that includes Christmas trees.

My favorite thing was the life size gingerbread house.  It was so much fun to look at and the kids loved it too.  They couldn't understand why they couldn't go in.

And for those of you industrious cooks/crafter's here's what you ™ll need to make this bad boy:

Who doesn't have 10 gallons of molasses on hand?

Here are a few more things that we saw while were there:

Overall we had a really good time.  We paid $10 to park, but we didn't pay for anything once we were inside.  It was worth the parking fee- the kids really loved it. If you're going there are a lot of places that provide great photo opportunities.

We arrived around 9:45 am and it wasn't too crowded, but when we were leaving around 11:00 am it was getting pretty crowded.  If you're going to take pictures go early – it's much easier to get the shots you want when there are less people.