Winter Wonderland

This afternoon we went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens, where there was a Winter Wonderland exhibit (indoors). It was snowing like crazy outside, which made getting there a little treacherous and walking from the car over to the building with the exhibit an interesting experience. The wind was blowing like crazy and the snow felt pretty icy hitting our faces.

But once we were inside, it was beautiful!

There were all kinds of neat displays made out of natural materials imitating buildings and places around Chicago. Mixed in were lots of Christmas lights, poinsettas, and other beautiful plants. The whole place was sparkling, and Eli was very excited to see all of the trains. Of course, none of my pictures of him watching the trains turned out very well.

Here he is laughing at my friend's daughter, Bailey.
There were quite a few rooms with pretty Christmas displays.

I loved the room with the gingerbread houses - it smelled SO good.

Eli was very sweet and snuggly - he kept giving me kisses and hugs.

Here is one of the rooms, where the palm trees were beautifully lit with white lights.

My friend Lindsay brought her daughter Katelyn, and then my friend Karrie brought her three kids, Holden, Parker, and Bailey. The older kids are great at entertaining Katelyn and Eli!

This is what it looked like as we left - snow flying everywhere! It was freezing, but so pretty with all of the lights on the trees outside on the garden grounds.

Here's Eli bundled up, squished in his car seat on the way home. The drive home was very slow... the streets were not cleared well and the wind was blowing the snow all over the place. We were so happy when we finally made it in to our warm house.

And if you're wondering why on earth we chose to go on this day of all days... the exhibit is free on Tuesdays in December!

Isn't it funny how free things are so motivating?