this song feels like hot chocolate warming yr insides
i hope you guys are prepared for an extremely cheesy and ridiculous post about christmas lights. wha? you came here for hard-hitting news? (ok if you did, you should read this salon article re: the myth about african american men and homicide. it’s pretty eye-opening).
ok now that we’ve got that “serious stuff” out of the way…
on tuesday night, a big, boisterous group of us kids hit up the trail of lights in zilker park. i’ve never seen the trail of lights. and, after seeing it, I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE TRAIL OF LIGHTS BEFORE. where have i BEEN?!! what have i been DOING?!!
the trail of lights is just one huge sparkling glittery bedazzled display of festive ridiculousness. which of course is my natural habitat.
here is the entrance:
i think that’s a pretty good indicator of what you’re getting into, yeah?
here’s our brave troupe of trailblazers (oh! ha!), minus henri, who did not feel like standing around for my third attempt at a picture.
doesn’t everyone look super ready to tackle the insane amount of electricity and cray cray families? YES! WE ARE EXCITED!
after the brazilliance of the entrance, it was nice to see a more simple piece:
these trees blinked on and off in tune with the charlie brown xmas theme song. i had a little awe moment.
the next exhibit was probably my favorite, cos it was EDUCATIONAL. first, there was a thunderstorm, and the water flowed into a little river…
and then after the storm, a rainbow appeared!!!!!!
speaking of gay,
matt posed all on his own, btw.
in spite of the cheesiness, there were a few majestic moments along the trail:
as we ventured along the path, i discovered my new dream home!!!!!
i mean, just LOOK at the sugar on that place. my only concern is the school district…
but who cares, when i’ll have a dancing cupcake lady as my neighbor?!
la la la! i’ve got sprinkles and frosting as my hair! la la la!
i also enjoy stars. here is a plethora of stars:
are you supposed to use “of” after plethora or not? i never know.
at the end of the trail, we reached the giant christmas tree. of course i laid down and made everyone huddle over me so i could get a shot like this:
those of you on the road trip of ‘01 may recognize this professional technique from the capital rotunda.
this is what the tree looks like, from a distance:
being inside of the tree is really exciting, like those tents you built as a kid. but instead of purple and green ’70s sheets, you’re surrounded by colorful, mesmerizing lights!
it made me want to spin around and around, but by then, my hands were v. cold.
so there’s yr virtual tour of the trail of lights. yes, it’s cheesy, but if you go with the right group, you’ll have a completely marvelous time.
and by “right group,” i mean the kind that will actually humor you when you say, “ok, i’m gonna take a picture of all of you guys jumping so… JUMP!”
so what if they can’t all jump at the same time. i’ll let that slide cos, hey, it’s christmas.
You forgot the freakiest part of your sugary dreamhome, though - there was that cookie with a bite taken out of him. The cookie was still happy (at least, he was smiling), but I think the dancing cupcake lady is the one who was eating him, and so her dance is extra special creepy.
henri’s comment is hilarious. also i like the idea of you taking about 4 pictures in a row for that one early in the post–it makes it seem a bit more human or real or something. great pictures!
My favorite part was discussing with Henri which of the Little Mermaid characters would taste best fried. The answer is, most likely, Flounder.
You know what, though? Sebastian would be pretty good to eat, too. I know I’m supposed to feel bad for him when the chef is trying to prep him up and he’s all singing Les Poissons and stuff, but I mainly end up feeling bad for Grimly when he doesn’t get to eat the stuffed crab he was looking forward to.
Also I wonder how Ariel and Sebastian get out of that awkward meal after he leaves Grimly’s plate and goes to hide on hers, but the movie just fades to black as if the crisis is over. But does Sebastian then scurry down and hide in Ariel’s dress? Does Ariel eat the other crab? And if she does, is that weird because the crab is one of the talking animals, or is that crab like the dolphins, who for some reason in the world of the Little Mermaid are one of the undersea creatures who can’t talk and are okay with being used as horses for King Triton?
That movie is confusing.
i love the lights. in a week or so i will update my flickr finally and post my photos too.
so on my drive last night, i was thinking about magic. this morning i read your post about santa claus, and it fit right into what i was thinking about. i think the trick to not losing the magic/faith is taking those things at face value. do we need to know that the paint with sparkles inside causes the sugar illusion on your favorite display at the trail of lights? no, because it’s not meant to be shattered by that revelation.
the next thing i thought about was whether that means it isn’t real. but i’m not sure it’s a very important question. the thing we love about kids, i think, is that they don’t pretend to have access to lots of knowledge and information, and they readily will ask, “why? why not? how?” and through their not knowing, they often stumble upon truths that we, as adults, tend to complicate with our own knowing or assumption of knowing.
there is truth in the sparkles, you know? it’s still beautiful and touches you, regardless of how the lights glow. and there are reasons for that, but they don’t really matter when a tree of blue lights and some music can make you get a little tearful.
anyway, i just had to say that stuff because my favorite part about sarah pants is her magic and appreciation of. love you, and i’ll see you lots this week.
Loved the photos–though sadly my head was chopped out from the huddle shot. And jumping in synch is hard by the way–we could have used a runthrough. Mucho fun though–props for the idea!
i loved hearing that song. happy clown.
Sarah, I loved the entryway to the trail of lights.