Christmas Extravaganza

It's just after 7 p.m. and I am sitting with my son in front of the fire. On the television is the classic, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. We had cups of hot cocoa, and now, I am taking a minute to document our day, before I forget the details.

I picked my son up at school, and told him that we were going to visit the Christmas Caverns, at Fairfield Garden Center, to see the festive Christmas tunnel, look at lit trees, and check out all the ornaments. I'd almost forgotten about the place, that I'd gone to year after year as a child, and if it weren't for Debbie Z. sharing her photos of the place, I might never have remembered. On the way, we stopped at Carvel for ice cream and a chat. We sat on the indoor bench, and talked about life while eating our scoops. It was a great blessing, because we bonded in ways that I don't imagine we might have had we not decided to sit there with our ice cream. It was a special experience, and as I looked at him and talked to him, I felt very thankful.

As we headed from Carvel to the Christmas Caverns, I showed my son places that I used to visit, and we listened to Christmas carols and laughed. We were having lots of fun; my stomach hurt from laughing so much. Arriving at the Caverns was wild. It's heavily lit and decked with tons of decorations. Outside, we saw a Vegas style Santa sign that was so cool, I pulled out my cell phone to take a photo.

My son, outside the Christmas Caverns

Inside, the place was decorated with reindeer, stockings, and a giant sleigh (for sale, at just $599). There was a room full of candy, bags of coal, and room after room of ornaments and nutcrackers.

Inside one of Christmas Caverns many festive rooms

We walked through, picking ornaments for people. Johnny picked his favorites for his dad and stepmom, and one for himself. I bought one for his guitar teacher, and for the White Elephant gift exchange and ornament swap that I will be attending this weekend. I also got one little adorable ornament for myself -- a glass, glittery hammer.

We walked through the tunnel (which is full of little rooms, not unlike the ride at "It's A Small World" in Disney) much to my son's chagrin, and as I giggled at all the adorable scenes, my son complained. It was then that I realized he is really growing up. The walk through brought up fun, old memories.  Like the time we walked through when I was a cool-teenage-16 and my brother was a getting-too-old-11. My friend, Lonn, happened to be in the reindeer costume, unbeknownst to me, and when we stopped to look at those reindeer, who moved and talked, one of the reindeer said playfully, "Hi Mrs. Klabin..." to my mother. She burst out laughing, in shock. It was too funny.

My favorite part was this "North Pole Post Office" sign, which was surely donated to the place from the real North Pole. I think that KT needs to have this sign outside her house, right Karen?

Oh come, oh Ye faithful. Mail your letters of devotion to Santa here.

We stayed about an hour, all in all. My son spent half the time doing goofy things to get a laugh out of me, like riding the display reindeer. As the lady was checking us out, I leaned into him, gave him a squeeze, and kissed his forehead. He didn't pull away, or complain. It was, most certainly, a Christmas miracle :)