"A tree in the Grand Hotel..."

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

by Johnny Mathis

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Everywhere you go;
There's a tree in the Grand Hotel, 

one in the park as well,
The sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow. 

It's been an utterly fabulous weekend here at our house.  We were able to have Spencer from Wednesday to Sunday and we had a ton of fun.  I wish we were able to have him all the time.  Life is just not the same when he's not here.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the Grand Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at The Grand America Hotel.  I received an announcement for it in the mail and I thought it sounded pretty fun.  I told Mike I'd like to check it out and he was less than thrilled, but agreed.  He thought it'd be a big sales ploy and that anything extra would cost a bunch.  I am so glad we went though!  It was incredibly fun and festive and EVERYTHING was free.  I don't think they even HAD anything for sale there.  All their shops were closed even.

First we did their "ABC's of Christmas Window Stroll."  Each shop window was decorated with some cute Christmas theme(s).  And at the bottom of the window it would say things like "H is for Ho Ho Ho" or "I is for Ice Skates" with every letter of the alphabet.  They had cards to fill out and once you got all 26 letters you could turn in your card at La Bonne Vie confection house for a free DELICIOUS chocolate monogrammed shortbread cookie.  

Here are Spencer and Melia at one of the store windows.  This one was our favorite with this awesome paper Santa.  Doesn't she look SO BIG in this picture?!  I love it!

Next we made our way through the ballroom corridor of the hotel to admire the Gingerbread Forest.  There were lots of incredible gingerbread houses that beat anything I've ever seen.  Here's Christmas around the world (China is on the left).

This is Santa's toyshop--and my handsome son.  Yes, these really are gingerbread houses.  The roof in this one is finished with pieces of gum!

After that we went to one of the rooms to write letters to Santa and then mail them in a neat old fashioned looking mailbox.

Then we made our way into another room and decorated gingerbread men (and women).
 
Melia got ahold of hers before any decorating had been done and would not let it out of her hands.  I think she enjoyed it.  It sure made a mess!  :)

 Next, we made our way to the top floor to enjoy Teddybear Town in the presidential suite.  Melia was quite mesmerized by the Grizzlies mascot and would not take her eyes off of him.

 Again we managed to gather a crowd while trying to take a picture of Melia.  She looked pretty cute on the bed with all those teddy bears.

 She liked all the decorations too.

 And loved the giant ornaments on the tree.

Mike and Spencer enjoyed the view from the presidential suite on the 23rd floor.

On top of all that you could go see Santa (the line was insanely long so we skipped that--we can see him at the ward Breakfast with Santa), the little girls could get a manicure, there were performances, and of course the Grand Christmas Tree (which I managed to not get a picture of).  We also drank endless hot cocoa and ate scones and cinnamon roasted almonds!  Yum yum!  Melia had her first taste of hot cocoa and she was in high heaven!

Here's the whole fam in front of one of the big trees in the hotel's grand entrance.

 Melia was pretty pooped by the end of the night and looked so tired as we strolled her through the halls.  She just held onto Scout her doggy.  I absolutely love that toy, I highly recommend it--and I am quite fond of the girl too.  :)

 From the moment we entered the hotel, Spencer kept talking about how it was like the Tower of Terror and how we couldn't get in the elevators.  Mike had dropped us off at the front entrance and then had gone and parked underneath and was going to meet us when he got off the elevator.  That is why Spencer had begun talking about it.  He was joking but I think he was partially a little creeped out at the same time.  When I told him Teddybear Town was on the 23rd floor he had said it was going to take a long time to get there.  I think he actually thought we were going to walk.  Somewhere in the back of his head, I really do think he was afraid to ride the elevator.

 

We finally did go up to the 23rd floor and everything was ok. Then on our way back down we happened to get to ride in the service elevator (just like in the Tower of Terror).  There was a big line for the elevators so you just got in whatever elevator was available.  There were quite a few of us in the elevator, but nothing too extreme.  When we got to about the 17th floor the elevator made a loud banging/clanging noise and stopped, then sortof fell a little ways.  Then we just sat there.  I was the one closest to the buttons and Mike, Spencer, and Melia were clear at the back--it was a huge elevator.  Everyone sortof looked to me for what to do (because I was the one at the controls).  I looked at this older lady who was right in front of me (we were face to face in this cramped elevator) and we just gave eachother this look of panic.  I was trying to calm myself when I remembered that both my kids were in this elevator with me.  I felt so helpless and then the anxiety really started.  I think everyone was relatively freaked out by that point.  Were we going to fall 17 stories to our deaths?  FINALLY the elevator started moving again and we all gave a sigh of relief.  I told everyone in the elevator how Spencer had been suggesting all night that this WAS the Tower of Terror.  I don't think anyone was fully relieved until our elevator landed safely on the main floor and we were all able to exit in one piece.  Phew.  Gosh...maybe Spencer has a 6th sense about these things!