2013 Festival of Lights

Every year at work there is a "combined campaign" to raise money for charities. You can pick from a huge list of charities and there are various ways to donate (deduction from your pay, check, credit card, etc...and it's so easy and convenient that there is almost no excuse to do it). There is also a raffle with various donated items. And I always buy tickets and I never win. I didn't figure I'd win this year either because I had rather a lucky 2013 as far as winning goes (like the blog giveaway). But I won something. Woohoo! It was a 4 pack of tickets to Hill Ridge Farm's Festival of Lights.

Back in the beginning of December we once again went to the Pullen Park Holiday Express. I figured it would be like that but I think I liked this better. I'd been wanting to take Grant to Hill Ridge Farm in the fall but with my schedule it just never happened. So this was very exciting. We had planned to use my winnings before Christmas but it seemed to rain every time we wanted to go. We ended up going the Friday after Christmas (the event actually closed the day after) and invited my mother-in-law and Husband's aunt to go with us. I'm so glad we waited! There was no crowd, just a few other families. It was great! And still very Christmasy :)

They opened at 5:00 and the first hayride through the lights was at 6:00. We got there around 5:30 and walked around a bit. My pictures don't do all the lights justice, the lights were great! And I have to admit, I already liked it better than the Pullen Park thing. We headed over to the hayride area a little early and they took our tickets and let us stand by the fire pit while we waited for them to get ready.

I love hayrides :)

Getting warm by the fire! I thought this was so great and
they had them all over. You could even buy s'more kits.

Our ride started a little early and Grant was so excited. Even though it was really cold that night, it was a nice ride through the lights and none of us seemed to mind the cold.

Grant had so much fun and they had a really impressive light display! After the hayride we found their huge slide. I rode with Grant and I thought it was fun too...but I'm a giant child. We walked around some more and then had dinner there (which was surprisingly good!).

Aunt Debbie got some duck food so they could feed some
of the ducks wandering around. Grant loved that!

We had also bought some tickets to take a train ride, so we headed that way after dinner. That...seemed colder than the hayride. Well, it would since we were going faster. Grant was oblivious, he was just happy to ride the train. You know who wasn't oblivious? Husband. Who had forgotten his hat. So he wore mine.

Cute.

We wandered a bit more after that. A lot the things that are open during the warmer seasons were closed but we saw enough to want to go back when they re-open for daytime hours. Making our way towards the exit (with Husband still wearing my hat), Grant found the playground.

What a fun evening! I'm so glad we got to go! It was cold but fun and, as my mother-in-law pointed out, it wouldn't have felt very Christmasy if it was warm. I didn't even know Hill Ridge Farms did this until I won the tickets. I definitely want to go back during the day and we'll definitely try to get back to their Festival of Lights next year.