So, the big event that I alluded to yesterday was that we got tickets to Ice! at the National Harbor. How can I explain Ice! to those who haven't seen it? Ice sculptures on crack seems about the best description. You walk into this giant tent where they herd you into a line and hand out parkas. Then you walk into another section of tent where they've lowered the temperature to about nine degrees Fahrenheit.

Then you walk through this:
There are "ten different holiday scenes made from two million pounds of ice, including a life-sized Santa's Workshop, a penguin village... and even ice slides that stand more than two stories tall!"

We saw monuments:
Rode a life sized horse-drawn sleigh:
Got a sneak peak at the night before Christmas:
Then we headed up to the North Pole:
And hung out with the penguins in their igloo:
After which, we walked through an ice tunnel that reminded me of an old Six Million Dollar Man episode (ooo! finally found a picture):
Then we entered the room with the ice slides, which was a ball for all of us. Except, perhaps for The Caterpillar, who really wanted to go down the slide, so they put her down on her back where she moved six inches and then lay there like a slug.
So the Gaylord employee reached down, shoved her at the shoulder and pushed her down the slide about three feet... where she lay there like a slug.
In a perfect world, I suppose her mother could have gone up to get her, but she was busy laughing and taking pictures. (More fodder for that Mother of the Year award bio.)
So finally, the guy at the bottom went about half way up the slide, grabbed her by the ankle and dragged her down to the bottom. Where she lay there like a slug.
And then her mother wiped tiny-frozen-icicle-tears from her cheeks.

Here's the sentry to Santa's toy factory:
Where Santa's elves were hard at work:
And The Dormouse made a friend:
Then we entered the religious portion of the evening, with a ten foot tall angel:
Some pretty cool ice-lights:
And a life-sized nativity scene:
I'm not sure I knew what to expect going in but we had a wonderful time. I'd suggest getting tickets ahead of time. I'm sure it was more crowded over the Thanksgiving weekend, but this thing's been getting a lot of press apparently so you might want to plan ahead. It was a fun way to ring in the Christmas season.

Oh, and that concludes my NaBloPoMo - post a photo every day contributions. My blog thanks you, my camera thanks you, and I thank you. (Name that musical reference.)