On the first official day of Winter Break, Monday morning, we packed up our mini van, dropped off the dog to neighbors and picked up Mom B and headed down the road. Tom was in no big hurry to get to Williamsburg VA since we planned on visiting Busch Gardens on Tuesday. We had thought about stopping into the new MGM casino that opened at the National Harbor by DC and maybe getting in a little gambling along our way while taking in the Holiday decorations, but Scott really can't get into the casino being underage, and I reminded Tom that the casino just opened meaning packed with people. So we opted out of that idea. We also thought about visiting the Gaylord Hotel next door to MGM and walking through the carved ICE display. We went many years ago with both my parents-a display of carved ice sculptures, usually with a theme and colored or clear. They actually give you an extra coat to wear while you walk through the indoor displays since it is so cold. So noone felt like walking through a cold display of ICE either, so we just kept on the road. Unfortunately, so did most of the East Coast. The freeway was packed all the way down to Richmond. This is usually a 3.5 hr drive which took us 7 hrs! We tried to see if the traffic would thin out later in the day by stopping for lunch and a visit to Costco to return some of our Christmas items and pick up some replacement items, but no such luck. No matter, we arrived in Williamsburg in the evening and checked into our hotel. All the hotels in the area were Sold Out! Good thing we planned ahead. Tom and the kids picked up some pizza nearby as Mom and I settled into our hotel room for the night.

On Tuesday, Tom and the kids spent the morning shopping at the outlet stores before we headed over to Busch Gardens. The park opened in the afternoon for the Christmas program. We started our day at the park with a few shows including an amazing production of Scrooge and a beautiful songfest of the Nativity called Gloria. We loved all the Christmas lights-they have added so many more in the park from our last visit many, many years ago with Tom's parents. Each section of the park was decorated with pine trees and color coded for each section like blue, purple, green, etc. We enjoyed a train ride around the park to catch all the lights. And Mom was able to get around easily in her power scooter that we packed.  We stopped for a big post Christmas dinner in the park with ham, chicken, ribs, and beef tenderloin along with a dessert buffet including chocolate cake, apple strudel, pumpkin and gingerbread cheesecake. Yum! We also loved shopping in the German Christmas village and Allison tried some warm, German wine, called Gluhwein in a small souvenir stein. The park was getting pretty busy in the evening and crowded. Some of the shows were standing room only. And the weather was actually fairly warm, so much so that they cancelled the outdoor ice skating show! We missed the olympic skaters, but it was time to head out. We were all pretty worn out by 9pm and the park closed at 10. Overall, we had a wonderful day and the weather was perfect.

On Weds we packed up and stopped into a local museum in Yorktown. Allison had recently visited the facility on a school outing to learn about the American Revolution with her roommate Jen, a history major. Yorktown recently opened a brand new museum depicting the history of the battle at Yorktown, the last major battle against the British in the Revolutionary War. Not only did they build a museum, but recreated an outdoor colonial village. It is actually still under construction, so we did not see the entire display, but were fascinated with the colonial houses and watched volunteers dressed in period garb cooking and making candles. There was also a military encampment and we learned about a soldier's life, with 6 to a tent(small tent), playing colonial games, watching a long rifle shooting demonstration and listening to the army surgeon's daily tasks of keeping the men alive(if able). Our favorite was watching the kids chase the ducks and chickens around the grounds(and vice versa). We stopped in the middle of the visit to have lunch at a nearby tavern that Allison discovered on her school tour. After closing down the museum, we headed out to Virginia Beach.

We stayed in the same hotel on the beach that we visited in the summer. Needless to say it was a bit more chilly! Instead of swimmers and sunbathers, they had Christmas lights set up along the beach strand and cars were driving through!  It was a beautiful sight from our hotel balcony. Tom and Kids went out exploring and came back with some nachos to nibble on. On Thursday we woke up to rain and fog. We decided to spend the day indoors at a local Navy museum. We drove to Norfolk to visit the Nauticus. This museum mixes a bit of information on the coast and sealife, along with Naval history. And they have a Battleship berthed at the pier! The Battleship Wisconsin is permanently retired and you can access the ship from the 2nd floor of the building. Mom was able to drive her scooter right onto the ship and cruise around the tremendous, wooden deck. We even ran into some Michigan residents from Bloomfield Hills(MSU baseball cap gave them away). Tom and the kids climbed up and down the different decks to explore the gun turret as well as the dining area and bunks below. Scott and I have slept on several Navy ships before with the Boy Scouts, but nothing of this size. The Wisconsin was active in WWI and WWII as well as reinstated for the Kuwait/Iraq war. Again we closed down the museum and stopped into the Movie Tavern on the way back to the hotel to catch dinner and a viewing of SING(which I really loved!). Quite a full day.

On Friday we packed up and took a stroll down the beach strand before heading out. It was much sunnier, but cold and breezy so we didn't stroll long! We decided to head back through the eastern shore and drop into Salisbury. Usually the traffic is much lighter but the ride is longer. Turns out there was no traffic along the route and we stopped into Allison's condo to drop off some items before stopping for dinner. However, we managed to catch a 4 car accident while crossing the Bay Bridge and we were stuck in traffic for 2 hours while they Medivaced accident victims via helicopter to a nearby hospital. We sat in the dark and watched the helicopters land and take off from the bridge while snacking on pretzels and cookies. So we did not get back home early, but did get home in time to drop Mom off to her apartment.

That left the New Year's Eve weekend free for celebrating! Our neighbors had already planned a Progressive Dinner party Saturday night. We had dessert covered as well as entertainment. So just a bit more cleaning, unpacking the mini van and picking up Cookie from the neighbors. I had already bought the desserts and plates, so we just had to lay out the party and head to our first stop. We had appetizers at one house-very nice. I could have just stayed there and eaten more than enough. But we were on our way to the dinner portion of the party. A wonderful meal of chili and ham. I made a crock pot full of mixed beans to go with the meal. Allison met us for dinner. She had been spending the day at her boyfriend's apartment. Tyler was hosting a guy's video game up all night party. So Allison spent the day playing a few games and helping Tyler set up his party. She was not as interested in participating in an all night guy fest. Instead she enjoyed visiting with one of her friends at the party. Same for Scott. He hung out with our neighbor's son Bryce, also in 11th grade. After dinner we headed to our house for dessert and to swap White Elephant gifts. Afterwards the kids talked us into playing Cards Against Humanity(a really obnoxious form of Apples to Apples). And the next thing you know we were watching the ball drop in New York City and popping off  bottles of champagne and noisemakers for the New Year. Then the bad part of being the last party house is that half of the guests don't leave! We did not clear the house until 2am. Fortunately we were able to sleep in on Sunday.

That was the day I headed over to visit with Mom at her place,  take down all her Christmas decorations and drop off her laundry. I also spent some time paying her bills, although no mail on Monday. Scott spent the day catching up on his Chemistry assignments(no rest for the weary). He even took worked on his assignment while we were traveling. Since the weather was so nice, Tom decided to spend the day taking down all the Christmas lights from the outside of the house. So did most of the neighbors. I miss the lights already-it is a lot darker out.