Christmas lights

We went with Emily, Cayo, Sofia and their Ecuadorean guests the other evening to see the "Zoolights Festival" at the Oregon Zoo. It seemed like a good outing to show Chela and Ani a little American Christmas culture. It was also a demonstration of the Oregon adage that goes something like, "if we waited until the rain stopped, we'd never leave our houses." We swaddled everyone up in hats and gloves and coats and equipped each adult with an umbrella and headed out into the deluge. Even for Oregon the rain was pretty relentless, but we had a good time, saw the lights, rode the train, watched the elephants eat hay and drank hot chocolate (us, not the elephants).

Ani, Sofia and Emily waiting in line for the zoo train

At least it was dry inside the train

I really do love the Christmas lights. I remember, as a kid, my parents would take one night during the Christmas season to load us all in the car and drive all around town looking at the Christmas lights. We especially liked driving through the "rich" neighborhoods because they had such extravagant displays. The zoolights were even better than those rich folks' lights of long ago. But, holy mother of pearl, it was wet out there.