Christmas at Opryland was Shrektacular!

We made it back from our family winter vacation to Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, TN. We had a fantastic time and will definitely be going back at some point in the future.

Opryland is just gorgeous and there is so much to see and do. It is perfectly family friendly and was just all around a pleasure.

I think the highlight of the trip for all of us was the "Ice!" exhibit featuring the story line from Merry Madagascar. It was not only breathtakingly cold (a bone chilling 9 degrees) but even more so beautiful. We were literally in awe of the sculptures and to put the icing on this already sweet cake, the tour ended with ice slides! Yes, you read that right, SLIDES made out of ICE!

The girls enjoyed seeing all the characters (Shrek, Fiona, Po, Puss in Boots, Alex, and the rest of the gang), from a distance that is. They were terrified if we got too close, but always insisted that they were ready to see them again as soon as they were out of sight.

The culinary highlight was by far lunch on the day of our departure. We met the girls' great grandparents for lunch at a picturesque southern plantation style home turned restaurant called Monell's at the Manor. The service was only topped by the mouthwatering southern fare. We're talking the works here people-fried chicken and catfish, homemade biscuits and cornbread, white beans, turnip greens, corn pudding, German potato salad, chicken salad, fried green tomatoes, and banana pudding for dessert! This meal was seriously heavenly!

For our first real family vacation I'd say it went extremely well! That's a good thing too since DH and I both love to travel and plan on giving the girls experiences like this instead of material things that eventually wear out or get broken.