If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area(more specifically in the South Bay) and have not yet explored the winter wonders here and you need staycation Christmasy ideas, here they are!
- Winter Wonderland – Entertainment, food and iconic landmarks from around the world – all in one place – you can experience the world here. And beautiful splendiferous(like Tigger would say) Chinese lanterns everywhere depicting everything from the Mayan pyramids(pictured here) to the Taj Mahal.A must-see and reasonable ticket prices – $30 for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids) – or you can check out Groupon to see if they have an offer on. Else you can check out the VTA free offer at http://www.vta.org/promo/winterwonderland.html
- Christmas in the Park – The San Jose tradition for the past 32 years, this offers beautiful animated exhibits, one giant 60-foot tree, trees decorated by school children around the Bay Area, live entertainment and more. And best of all, these are all free. In addition, there is also a skating rink, rides, food which you can enjoy as well for a nominal price. Fun for the family, fun for all ages.Tip: you can park in one of the parallel roads (one option is near the local YWCA) for free and walk down to the fun.
- Fantasy of Lights at Vasona Park – A tad expensive for what is offered but fun nevertheless, and can be experienced once for sure.
- For more ideas go to: http://lightsofthevalley.com/
- And this site offers a listing of Christmas light displays around the US: http://www.lightpatch.com/christmaslights/
NOTE: Linking this Travel Thursday post to Alphabe Thursday
Thursday Memes:
Over at Alphabe Thursday, this week is a Holiday Link-link anything related to these holiday weeks…recipes, decorations, stories, poems, pictures (and my post today above about Travel Thursday is to do with the Holidays)
Theme Thursday over at Theme-Thursday – the theme is ‘GIFT’
One of the best gifts I received recently – a comment made by the teacher at my kids’ after-school care – “Your children are so wonderful – a treasure to have, it is such a pleasure to work with them and they are always so helpful to all their friends – ready to assist their teachers and their classmates in whatever they need.”
Theme Thursdays: ‘Clothes’ is the theme this time over at ‘Reading Between the Pages’ who hosts this weekly meme. The rules are:
* A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)
* Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading
* Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post
* It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)
For Theme Thursdays and one more for Theme Thursday(GIFT)
“At the wedding, Mrs. Gupta had graciously presented the blushing bride-dentist with a beautiful, heavily embroidered purple silk sari. “
Pg 18 – ‘The Sari Shop’ by Rupa Bajwa
I beg your forgiveness for my cutting and pasting my comment, but there was no way on Earth I would be able to make it around the whole globe to wish everybody a Merry Christmas otherwise.
The magical elves that constitute my staff have demonstrated their lack of respect in either not showing up for work at all, or those that have all seem a little worse for wear (if you catch my drift). All they seem to do is sit around smoking cigarettes that, frankly, smell funny. In addition, they play cards and tell dirty jokes rather than do their jobs! Consequently, the reindeer are all filthy and out of shape.
I now have my two sons pulling the sleigh, but they are struggling. I’ve been told that it’s a big ask for a three and five year old, but I made it this far with a couple of mangy chooks, an arthritic wallaby and three peculiar wombats! Unfortunately, we lost all bar one wombat over Pittsburgh (and the sole survivor is exhibiting clear signs of PTSD).
Anyway, all the way down here at the bottom of the world (A.K.A. Tasmania), and from myself, Jen, Henry and Ezra, please have a Merry Christmas/Winter Solstice/Hanukkah/Festivus/Ashura and a happy New Year!
I hope that all of your holiday photos turn out to be triumphs, your stocking is stuffed full of lots of tasty treats and not coal and that all your pumpkin pies/ prawn cocktails/ currywurst are all as tasty as can be!
We always take our grand kids to see the lights at vasona. They love it! And Christmas in the park is a favorite too.
Our twin grandchildren arrived today from Kentucky. They are 2 1/2. We are taking them to the top of Mt. Lemmon (10,000 feet) to play in the snow with our two dog children. Then we go to a holiday lights festival, and finally, on Monday we are taking them to the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum to check out all the wildlife! It will be a busy time, but lots of fun!!!
sounds like a pretty cool gift…we havea family here locally that created an amazing light show…they even have their own radio station sinced witht he lights…very cool…
I lived in the south bay for years but never heard of the Winter Wonderland. Vasona's great…and, if you're wanting more, there are some great neighborhoods with lights off Quito road on the Los Gatos side… Merry Christmas!!
My Christmas this year will be "homey" with babies, pregnant mom and toddlers – they'll be the little stars of this Christmas!
I'm also in the Bay Area and your suggestions are great! I love Vasona park.
Happy TT and happy holidays too!!
@Kristhank you for these magical wishes
@Sueso might likely run into you somewhere! will be nice if i do..
@Judiethat is such a nice age and you must be thrilled having them near you.. enjoy your time with them..
@Brian Millerthat is cool! there are lots of local neighborhoods with cool lighting here – we have to yet go around..
@anitamombanitaThe Winter Wonderland is new for this year…and hopefully will be a new tradition along with the others..will check out Quito rd…thanks for the suggestion.
@jeannettedefinitely deserving stars! Have a great time with them..
@Karengreat to hear you are in the area too.. am making lots of new friends in the bay area because of blogging.. have a happy holiday
Those sound like lovely places to visit and maybe someday if I am lucky to go up north again during a Christmas holiday then I could visit one. Down here we just tell everyone to go to Disneyland or Hollywood. But we do have areas where whole neighborhoods are full of houses that compete with their lights. We also have an area off of one of our freeways where the traffic stops because it is on both sides. I actually hate traveling through there because it takes forever but if you are going for the lights then it is great.
That was a wonderful gift your child's teacher gave you, and thank you for sharing it with us in this weeks Theme Thursday. I hope you like next weeks theme, great one for parents.
Merry Christmas.
God bless.
@MrsupoleThank you for visiting and your comments.. Will return in the new year to blogging..
I love the word Staycations!
Although I will always choose room service, someone to wash my towels AND a whirlpool bathtub when I can get it!
ha!
Thanks for a cute link!
Sending you warm wishes for a 2012 filled with creativity, joy and lots of Staycations!