A Holiday on ICE!
For the past couple of years, Patrick has been on the opposite coast of the US for our anniversary, so we have had to celebrate at other times. Last year, we celebrated in April with a trip to Ireland three years in the planning (a 10th anniversary gift taken in the year of our 13th anniversary). This year, we celebrated as a family with a pre-Christmas trip to Gaylord Resort at National Harbor and the ICE! Spectacular.
ICE! featured TWO MILLION pounds of ice block carved into dancing penguins, a winter river scene, three giant ice slides, Santa’s workshop, and an absolutely beautiful nativity scene! The ICE! scenes were carved by 40 International Artisans from Harbin, China, a city in northeast China that is famous for its annual International Snow and Ice Festival. It took the artisans 30 DAYS to complete the 10 scenes featured in ICE! at National Harbor. The exhibit is kept at a chilly 9 degrees to preserve it for the duration of the ICE! Spectacular, but don’t worry, with our own jackets, gloves, hats, long-johns, and snowpants under the parka provided by ICE! we were quite comfortable for the hour we were in ICE! Only the tips of our noses got cold.
As part of our ICE! Adventure, we spent two nights at the Gaylord Resort at National Harbor. The ICE! Spectacular itself was breath-taking, but the two nights at the hotel were truly magical. After only a few hours, Connor was saying he wanted to live at the hotel, and I can’t say I’d mind.
The decorations were lovely, the staff was pleasant, and the extras like the hourly evening snow fall (soap bubble snow is still fun for kids, even a week after an 18″ snowfall), the 60-foot glass Christmas Tree, and the nightly hot chocolate (with marshmallows, of course) brought out the child-like wonder in all of us. And of course, not having to worry about laundry, cleaning, or any of my other usual daily chores was most inviting!
The four of us ice-skated, sled down snow-covered hills, swam while watching Dive-In movies, played board games, gazed at the dancing fountains, and searched high and low for over-sized stuffed PEEPS, that’s right the infamous sugar-coated marshmallow chicks. This trip, unlike many of our vacations, focused entirely on spending time as a family, really relishing our time together; there were no sights to see outside of the ICE! event, no timelines or deadlines, just hours of time with each other – and it was truly wonderful!
This is one experience I would love to see become a Holiday Tradition, not necessarily a trip to National Harbor or ICE! each year, but a trip where the focus is simply spending time together as a family. When the boys were asked if they might be willing to give up some of their usual presents under the tree to take a family trip at Christmas again next year, they actually took pause before saying with over-sized grins, “Can’t we have both?” Well, we’ll have to work a bit more on convincing them of the idea of giving up one for the other, but the fact that they took pause speaks volumes for the possibility… and for what a wonderful time they had this at Gaylord Resort this year!