I took the kids to Dollywood on Friday

We bought season passes to Dollywood last spring & we've taken the kids a couple times. Most things close down in the winter here & Dollywood is no different. It's last day was January 3rd. On Friday (the 2nd), Hubby & I decided it would be a good idea for me to take the kids to the Smokey Mountain Christmas Festival at Dollywood. We had been hoping that Hubby would be able to go too, but he wasn't able to take the time off work. It would have been nice to go before Christmas, but we just couldn't find a way to fit it in our schedule.

I don't like to tell the kids where we are going ahead of time because it always seems to get them too excited, so we packed the car up on the premise of seeing if there was any snow in Gatlinburg (about 30 minutes past Dollywood). Since the weather was pretty brisk, I figured snow suits on the little ones would come in handy anyway. We grabbed some lunch from the dollar menu at McDonald's and stopped at the store for drinks and snacks. When we got to the area, everything was pretty wet from the rain earlier in the day, so we decided that it was unlikely there would be any snow & since we were in Pigeon Forge anyway we might as well go check out Dollywood's Christmas Festival.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that all the midway type rides were open. The last time we went, we spent most of our time at the shows. This time, I decided we would skip the shows and just enjoy the rides.

They all LOVE the carousel. Baby Daughter was a bit scared the first time, but after she went on a bunch of other kiddie rides she couldn't wait to get back on the horsies.

After it got dark, the trees and buildings were all lit up. I think it is probably the best Christmas light display I've ever seen. Here are a few of my favorites.