Wednesday, December 7, 2022

Christmas traditions: Bentleyville

It's December, it's full on Christmas season, I am in full mom, make-Christmas-special-and-memorable-for-everyone mode, so the first stop? Bentleyville, of course! 

If you've never been to Bentleyville, it's a huge outdoor light display in Duluth, Minnesota and it is totally free and kids 10 and under get a free hat after their visit with Santa. It's kind of amazing, and you can find it on TikTok (Bentleyville USA), it's all over social media, and you'll find it featured on all kinds of shows. We go every year and it's always a gamble on when we go, we try to go on a warm night because it is right next to Lake Superior so when its cold, it is COLD. Oftentimes if its a warmish night, we will drop everything and go then because I'd rather miss something than stand in the Santa line for an hour and dance with hypothermia. 

The little girls love the giant tree, but it is so hard to get a really good picture of it. 
This was the first year we didn't have all four kids with us, Olivia was out doing her own thing and it really hit me that pretty soon we'll be down to three kids at home, then two, then one, then none. It is so weird to have this process start. As a parent it seems like a far away destination but Matt and I are approaching it and it is the strangest feeling. 
My favorite (and the little girls', too) are the arched walk ways. There are a couple of them you walk through and I just love them. 
We went to Brainerd, Minnesota this year and went to Paul Bunyan Land, so Pep told me I had to take a picture of Paul Bunyan and Babe!
Lucy insisted on wearing her Minnie ears, which predictably, became an issue so Matt got to wear them through the last half of the walk. 
Even though Jackson and I were able to go shopping before leaving but Pep and Lu were fading fast since it was past their bedtime, so by the time we got home they were totally out. 
We can cross Bentleyville off our list, next up is baking cookies. I'm not trying to bake with the kids because nothing will send me over the edge than baking with my kids, so that's going to be a solo project. I also want to try to do a few more things but our weekends are already filling up and I always feel like we don't have enough time, you know? 

I am super excited for Christmas though, I feel super organized and like I have a good grip on things. I have our Christmas cards done, I just have to print our letter and put them in the envelopes and I'm good to go. I'm even getting started on my wrapping, so I feel like I've got a good handle on things right now. Here's hoping I can keep it up, right??

1 comment:

Shooting Stars Mag said...

Ooh looks fun. I feel like I'm missing things already since I've been sick for like weeks now. There are still some things I want to do and places I'd like to visit, so fingers crossed it all works out.

Glad you all had a nice time though! And yay for being on top of things. :)

Lauren @ www.shootingstarsmag.net