Polar Pancakes and a visit to Christmastown USA

Last year for Christmas my Mom gave my sisters and I each a Pancake mold kit from Williams Sonoma kids. I'm sure she likely got them at the end of the season the year prior (she's thrifty like that and I'm proud to say I got that from my Mama). I was so excited when I unpacked them from one of my Christmas boxes this year because I had forgotten all about them. The girls and I decided to have breakfast for dinner one night so that we could use them and share our creations with Daddy. I used the pancake recipe on the package and those were some ridiculously yummy pancakes. Using pancake molds (as it turns out) takes some practice, but I got it figured out after I butchered a few elf's and reindeer :).

This was Avery's first day of piggie tails and sadly this was the best smile I could get. 

So cute, right? 

Another fun seasonal activity we got in on was a trip to McAdenville, NC, AKA "Christmastown USA". Basically this town goes ALL OUT for Christmas. I don't think there was one house/business/church/public office not decorated in the entire town. Wow! You can either drive through or you can walk and since the winter has been relatively mild (read...non-existent) here, we decided to walk it. I had heard from some of the locals that driving could = hours of waiting because this town draws such a crowd. We went on a weeknight and walked and it was a really neat and FREE experience.

There were some gorgeous homes and although you'd think people would Griswald it up in Christmastown, USA it was, for the most part all really understated and pretty. 

This church went all out and had tons of sand dumped in their lawn to create a more natural and realistic looking nativity - WOW. 

Yeah...since this was a weeknight I was glad that a. we didn't go on the weekend and b. we walked rather than sitting in this:

I thought this was so pretty: 

and these angels too: 

This was the most extreme house we saw on our walking tour. Holy lights batman!

I can't imagine what their electric bill looks like for the month of December and I also can't imagine how the city maintains power with that kind usage every night from dusk til 9 every night from December 1 til...

Although it was fun to walk around and admire the decorations and lights, can you IMAGINE living there? The decorating pressure! The traffic! The odd people staring at your house EVERY NIGHT of DECEMBER - shew! I guess when you purchase in "Christmastown" you know what you're getting into. I'm thankful for their dedication :).