January 10 – “Cold”

Chris and I went on a real date last night.  Just the two of us.  A real romantic “walk in the park” you might say.  Forgot we could actually do that every now and then.  Pretty strange not having to help keep up with eight youngsters.  Thanks to the generosity of one of our sons adding us to their family pass, we went to Moody Gardens.  I know.  Long drive.  We made it safely in about two and half minutes.  Left the house at around 5 and were back home by 7.  And we didn’t have to watch the second half of the Hoyer-led massacre of the Texans by the Chiefs.

Our first stop was the tent with the ice sculptures.  I have been curious about that ever since they started putting it up.  It was … cold.  Way too cold.  They said the temperature was always kept around 9 degrees.  It reminded me of going skiing in Colorado.  But at least there we had something to cover our faces.  Chris was complaining that she might lose her nose to frostbite.  There were some very cool carvings, though (Get it?  “Cool” carvings).  The main thing that struck me was the sheer size of everything.  They had a full sized pirate ship made of ice, not to mention a slide for the children.  Well, OK, not just for the children.  I succumbed to Chris’ urgings (it was all to please her, you understand) and went down that indoor slide made entirely of ice.  I can still feel it in my nether regions.

We didn’t stay inside the tent for very long.  No one does.  Did I mention that it was cold in there?  After our excursion into the indoor Coloradan ice bucket, we decided to take in the Festival of Lights a swell.  This is the last weekend for all of this Christmassy stuff, so we had to try it out.  We also wanted to compare it to Dickinson’s version that we went to when Josh and Christi were here. 

First off, the Moody Gardens version was certainly bigger.  More classy.  They reconfigured it from years past, so it was considerably longer as well.  Oh, and they even added a new little train ride.  Luke would have loved it.  On the negative side, though, there was nothing hands-on for the kids like Dickinson’s cookie-making booth.  Then there was the really long walk.  Oh, and the Jesus event was added like an afterthought.  Dickinson was more intimate.  The light tunnels in Dickinson were much more effective.  And it does help that Dickinson is free.

Oh, and did I mention that it was cold.  Not just inside that ice factory.  Outside it was 46 with a wind chill of 39.  And one of the trails was right on the water, allowing the wind to attack unimpeded.  We came back home to a cup of hot apple cider.  Perfect ending. 

1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be self-controlled and alert.”

Father, thank you for cold warm moments with my wife.  Amen.