Skip to main content

The Way of Lights

We went to an amazing light display here in Belleville, Illinois.  It's located at the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows which is dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus.

The light display has over a million white lights and it takes them six weeks just to get them all up.

If you just want to view the lights, you can simply drive right through.  There is no charge, although they do accept donations at the end.

But if you want to get out of your car and experience some of the extras, you'll be quite pleased!


Check the weather first!  We didn't realize we'd be getting out of the car and nearly froze.  Luckily, they were selling hot chocolate there for only $2 a cup!  Emily wasn't happy as she's allergic to milk, but we bought her some kettle corn to make up for it.

Then Katie wasn't happy because she wanted Emily's kettle corn.

Peace on earth, my aunt fanny.

At the first stop we discovered a horse-drawn carriage which you can hire to take you though the light display but it was much too cold.

There were donkey rides........

...and even camel rides!

At the next stop we found a Christian bookstore which had lots of crucifixes, rosaries, and saints medals.

Emily looked at me and said, "I've never felt so Protestant in my life."

There was also an area where you could dress in angel costumes and have your picture taken.

There was also a stage where various choirs sing although none were performing during our stop.

Also, wreath displays......
....and tree displays.

See this amazing mosaic of Mary, Jesus, and three angels?
It's hard to tell, but it was taller than I am.
Let me show you a closeup....

Yep, those are LEGOS!  You can't even tell the entire thing is made of Legos, until you are up close!

Back in the car, we drove through a path of lights which was quite spectacular to see.
It was almost like looking at a city of lights.

There were various displays showing the story of the first Christmas.
This one was of Bethlehem.


There are even moving displays!

This was an angel hovering over the manger scene.

There are lights in the trees which looked like stars overhead.

Our last stop was at the laser show.  There are two different shows, one at a quarter after and one at a quarter 'til, every hour.  It's $3 per person to view and totally worth it.  Sit near the back for the best view!

Comments

  1. That's some production, its easy to see why it takes 6 weeks to put the whole thing up!
    We have a daughter who cant have milk as well, so have been right where you guys are.We generally have the no milk on outings rule, but when its that cold what can you do?!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o

A Week After Surgery

Katie went back to the surgeon yesterday to have her foot checked.  It was the first time we saw the stitches.  When we saw her after surgery, her foot was already wrapped up in three inches of gauze and it's been wrapped like that ever since. The doctor decided that the sutures were not quite ready to be removed. There are stitches in the side of her foot where they inserted one of the screws.  The surgeon told us that she has to be very, very, very careful not to put her foot on the ground.  Any pressure at all could cause the screws to shift or break and that would be very, very, very bad. They knew we were going out of town for the wedding this weekend.  In order to protect her foot as much as possible, she was put in a hard cast.  It will come back off on Monday so they can check the sutures again.  This cast has a very limited time to be signed! Katie may not get to have a lot of people sign her cast  but she currently still has the initials of the sur