Lights On at The Grand

We decided that since Greg had 5 (yes, FIVE) days off in a row for the Thanksgiving holiday that we needed to do something with the kids. So, we packed up for the night and headed down to Little America Hotel and got our Christmas kick-off on. We got a beautiful tower room with a king sized bed and made a plan. We would head over to the Grand America for their Lights On celebration and then we would go back to the room have a little dinner (we ended up with Cafe Rio) and watch a movie all snuggled up on the bed. Hence the king size bed. It was a lot of fun. The Grand had a crowd but was not super packed and we got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus (see our picture below), wander through the hotel while we filled out our scavenger hunt card which told the story of helping Maurice the penguin find the missing Christmas star. And when we were done, the kids got yummy shortbread cookies at the La BonneVe store. Nathan could spend all day at the new toy store JouJou at The Grand, it was a lot of fun. I bought our Christmas tree ornaments for this year there...........really cute glass robots. And, probably the kids favorite part, Greg (the Daddy who hates to swim) took them swimming while I went to go get dinner. Capped off the night watching The Smurf's movie snuggled on the bed. Alex crashed before the movie was over, and because I love my children, but have no desire to sleep in the same bed with them (pretty sure I would wake bloody) I moved them to the air mattress we had brought with us. I felt a little weird about packing in an air mattress, but it worked out so well! Then Nate ended the movie and moved to sleep with his sister. This was brilliant, and even more so when they both climbed into bed with us at 6 am (ya, we had a nap when we got home). I am a sucker for a good breakfast buffet and the one at Little America is one of my favorites. A perfect end to a quick get away. As we drove away Alex said she wanted to go back, and Nathan said next time we should stay at the Grand America. Maybe this summer we can make that happen. They have an awesome outdoor pool.
(A little blurry, I took a picture of our picture to post it here)