Christmas at the Gaylord Texan

This Christmas my mom's side of the family planned a trip to the Gaylord Texan hotel in Grapevine to celebrate the holidays. Instead of taking all of our gifts there we decided to have Christmas here with the kids on the 23rd. This way they would have a day or so to play with their new toys before we headed out. Hayden got a new bike with no wheels(it's supposed to help them with their balance) and a cardboard castle just big enough for him to crawl in and out of. You're supposed to color the outside, but I haven't been brave enough to let him have markers in my living room yet. Nicholas got a lot of new art stuff and a couple of games. They seemed to really enjoy all their new things.



On Christmas Eve around 3pm we headed out to Grapevine. On our way, we heard it was supposed to be snowing there. Sure enough, it started snowing on us as we hit Round Rock and continued the whole way. The trip was fairly simple and uneventful until we got to the 35 East/West split just outside of Dallas. The roads were starting to ice over and the bridges were terrible. This is where we were only able to travel 10-15mph and had to be extra careful. Cars were sliding all over the road, some bumping off of the guard rails and metal fences that separated the east and west bound lanes. We skid a few times, but luckily we were able to keep the truck on the road and made it there safely. That last leg of the trip should have only taken an hour and a half or so, but instead it took almost 3. By this point we were all getting antsy and the kids really wanted to get out in the snow. It had finally started to stick and was piling up quite quickly.



We finally checked into the hotel around 8:30pm, greeted the rest of the family, got settled in and decided to take the kids out to play. That lasted maybe 10 minutes. It was really cold and windy! Hayden was ok at first, but as soon as he touched the snow he freaked out and wanted to go back inside. He's not a fan of the cold weather. David and Nicholas had fun throwing around a couple of snow balls.



Christmas day was full of activities! We all got up around 8:30 and let the kids open their stockings from Santa. Hayden was super excited about his humongous lollipop! When they were finished checking out their latest round of gifts we walked around the hotel and took some pictures at every photo opportunity we had!



Next came brunch! If I could eat this brunch every day I would be in heaven! It was $65 per person, ridiculous I know, but they had anything and everything you could think of! Crab legs, shrimp, fajita tacos, pancakes, eggs, bacon, tons of sweet desserts, literally everything and it was all delicious! I even tried my first sushi roll...not my cup of tea!

After brunch we took the kids to see the Grinch themed ICE exhibit inside the hotel. They used 2,000,000 p0unds of ice for all the sculptures and kept the convention center at - 9 degrees! We all donned blue parkas and started in. Once again, Hayden was ok at first, but about 10 minutes in he started to get fussy because it was so cold. They had huge slides made of ice, one for the little kids and one for the bigger ones. We put Hayden on the children's slide and somehow he got stuck! They had to use a long hook to pull him down. Nicholas, David and I all did the big slide. It wasn't that great, but I'm glad I did it.



I don't know what it is about food, maybe I'm hard to please, but for dinner we went to one of the restaurants in the hotel called Texan Station. They have a huge 52 foot projector screen that was airing the San Diego/Tennesee football game. I really wanted to watch it, but that section was 21 and up and the big screen outside was only showing some dumb basketball game. To top it off, the wait was an hour and a half. Anyway, we finally set down at a table just before 9pm. We didn't get our food until after 10!! The service was terrible, the food wasn't that great and it was ridiculously expensive! To give you some sort of idea...the kids grilled cheese plates were $8, my hamburger was $14! I also left dinner early because I wasn't feeling very well. I ended up back in the hotel sick for the rest of the night! What a way to spend Christmas evening :(

The next morning we went to the Riverwalk Cafe for breakfast. It was buffet style, but was surprisingly good. They had all the breakfast things you would see on a typical buffet so nothing special. We sat "outside" (still inside the hotel) next to the "riverwalk" and enjoyed our last hour at the hotel.



I was sad to leave. This was the first time I had been away from home for the holidays that I didn't feel stressed and overwhelmed. It was a nice and relaxing way to enjoy family time and I definitely wouldn't mind doing it again. I'm actually considering going back for our anniversary and my mom, aunt and I are thinking about making a girls weekend for their Mystery Theater Dinner.