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??

The First Annual Ugly Sweater Christmas Party.

I have always wanted to do an ugly sweater party but every year something else has come up and it just didn't happen. This year when Amy told me she wanted to do one too, I decided that dammit- we are doing this. It started out as a moderately sized group was all invited and pretty much all at the last minute, some people had to work, some were sick (which totally OK- I do not want nor need your sick germs, folks), some had last minute things that came up, etc. We ended up having a total group size of six for dinner that dwindled to five for the bar stop.

The original plan was to go to dinner, go over to an ice bar that was just built in Canal Park, head over to Bentleyville which is this huge tour of lights that used to be in this guy's yard but has now moved to Bayfront Festival Park, and then head out to a few bars.

Dinner was at Old Chicago, which I love but don't get to go to very often. Hands down the best was when we realized that Chad and Matt were wearing the same ugly ass Christmas shirt. Unintentionally. I wish I would have had enough sense to take a picture of it, because it was kind of awesome.

After dinner, we headed over to Bentleyville because it was kind of cold and we had a feeling we'd be in line for a LONG time for Santa. Oh, you heard me right- we were going to visit Santa.

 After almost two hours of standing in really fucking cold weather, we saw Santa. We got some dirty looks at the restaurant, but Santa laughed at us. Flat out laughed at us. Whatevs. But we got a great picture. Some special things you should note- is that my sister in law has a festive green for her hair color but the best part of her outfit? The fact that she shrunk her sweater so it was cropped. Matt and Chad with their matching shirts, me with my fugly sweater with giant white balls dangling from the zipper, Amy with her festive vest and snappy denim shirt and her amazing knee high socks, and Tammy's gigantic jingle bell earrings kept falling off. Which was kind of hilarious.

 So after leaving Santa we basically hustled our asses through the rest of Bentleyville because Amy's legs were numb and Tammy couldn't feel her feet. My thighs were pretty much numb as well but seeing how Matt and I had done Bentleyville with our kids the weekend prior, I was OK. It wasn't as cold during party night as it was with the kids.

 After Bentleyville we headed to the standby dive bar in my town. Usually? That place is hopping with weirdos and terrible karaoke singers- but that night it was DEAD. The guy who runs the karaoke sang two completely depressing songs- something about growing up in the ghetto (mind you, this is coming from a middle aged, overweight and balding white man) and something about being sad in Texas. I have no idea. If we didn't have the guys with us and it was just a regular girls weekend- I would have completely suggested we go to the gay bar down the road because that is truly a place to see. Maybe next time!

All in all, it was fun... but it could have been more fun. I had a lot on my mind and as excited as I am for Christmas, I'm not quite loving it yet. I'm just a little stressed out so I wasn't feeling like partying so much. But next year? I'm excited. I think next year we'll do it again because honestly? Half the fun was just trying to find such ugly shit to wear.