The Minivan Express

I have had a love/hate relationship with Pinterest in 2011.

Today, I have lots of love for it because it helped make a favorite tradition of ours even better.

We love to go look at lights every year, but this year we hopped aboard the "Minivan Express."

Aren't all you non-minivan drivers out there a tad bit jealous?

That's a whole other post in itself.

We told the kids it was time for bed around 5:45.  Luckily, they can't tell time and it was dark so they were none the wiser.  

However, we had yet to feed them dinner, so they must have been a little confused.

When they went upstairs they found Golden "Minivan Express" tickets under their pillow.

Addison was very excited.

She became even more so when we told her we were going to Chick Fil A, and then to look at Christmas lights!

 Graham was so happy he fell over.

Or something like that.

 First stop on the trip....Chick Fil A!

Our home away from home.

Santa Cow was there, but the kids wanted nothing to do with him.

They were more interested in the nuggets and who could really blame them.

 Then it was time for chocolate milk and cookies in the car.

I don't know what she's doing here, but I think she was squinting because of the flash.

 After stopping off at Starbucks, the Minivan Express took a tour of the best lights in San Diego.

 Seriously, I don't know how these people do it.

It takes my husband 4 hours to hang one strand of lights on the garage.

Which he didn't do this year because I didn't want them left up there until July like last time.

Ahem.

 I loved seeing the palm trees all decked out.

California Christmas

 Some of the houses had their lights set to music.

You would turn to that station on the radio and the lights would "dance".

 I really can't imagine their electric bill.

 As we got closer to home, the kids were almost racked out, but we took in one more house.

This house is actually around the corner from us.

It's amazing because they go so far as to create an entire window shop scene in the window complete with fish swimming in the water. 

The Minivan Express pulled into our driveway and Addison yelled, "Hey, why doesn't our house have lights?!!"  "We need lights!!"

Because my dear, your mom and dad are lazy.....and we want to be able to pay our mortgage.

I leave you with our favorite house.  They have an entire YouTube channel.

Please take a second to watch.....it's absolutely mind blowing.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!