Light the lights

Last night, Jeff, Biscuit and I drove over to a park that has a 4-mile display of Christmas lights. 

According to the website, they have more than 1 million individual lights that are in almost 100 different displays.

We went to this same park last year, and if you click the link, you'll see that I have almost the exact same photos posted below. I guess when you pick out your favorite displays, they don't necessarily change from year to year. They had the throwback pricing again this year, so all three of us got in for $5.

Biscuit enjoyed the lights more this year than he did last year. Part of that may be because I let him sit in my lap in the front seat, so he could see the displays a lot better than he could from his car seat.

It seemed like every time we turned a corner and got to a new display, Biscuit would yell, "WHAT?!? WHAT?!? Look! Mom! Dad! Look!"

We stopped at the gift shop/concession stand/bonfire again this year, and Biscuit and I roasted some marshmallows. The sticks come with four marshmallows, so when the first one got brown, I pulled it off for Biscuit. We both blew on it until it was cool enough for him to eat, then he bit into it. He had marshmallow all over both hands and his mouth.

Then I remembered. We were in Jeff's car, and he isn't as compulsive about supplies as I am. We didn't have any wipes or any water. The only bathrooms available were porta-potties, so that was no help. I even considered buying a bottle of water, but by the time I got back to the concession stand, there were about 20 people in line.

I finally tore through the glove compartment and seriously considered for a minute how much damage a glass-cleaning wipe might do to Biscuit's hands!

I found a couple of alcohol towelettes in a little first aid kit and used them to get Biscuit's hands cleaned off. But then I looked up at his mouth.

I couldn't use the alcohol wipes on his mouth, so I resorted to the method used by moms all over the world for centuries ... spit and a tissue.

I licked my thumb and rubbed it below Biscuit's bottom lip, then wiped it with a fast food restaurant napkin. Two or three times of that did a pretty good cleanup job.

I made Jeff promise to pull into the first clean establishment he could find when we left the park. I took Biscuit to the bathroom and did a much better job of ridding his hands and face of goo.

Biscuit talked a lot about the lights and what his favorite parts were. It seems that we might have created a tradition.

Here are a few pictures:

This is what happens when you're taking a picture of some
lights, and Jeff starts driving forward before your shutter closes.

After you drive through the archway of bells, you can
roll down your windows and listen to bell music.

This is a real train with lights added.

Biscuit doesn't like to have dirty hands. See how concerned he looks?

Clearly, I'm failing as a mother. It never occurred
to my son that he could just lick his fingers!