Moody Gardens Festival of Lights

And to go along with the last story... lol... Here's more Groupon fun!  

Heather and I bought the Moody Garden's Festival of Lights ticket.  Included in the ticket was a tour of the rain forest pyramid and the Festival of Lights outside.  By the time we left work and got to Galveston it was pretty dark and late for the entrance to the rain forest exhibit but we still got to see some cool creatures.  

 I thought the BRIGHT blue frog was pretty amazing.

 "Hellooooo thereeeeee" said the chameleon. :)

The pretty polka-dotted frog on a beautiful pink plant.  There sure are some pretty things in this world...

Although, I'm not so sure about how "pretty" my Amazon anaconda is.  But whatever keeps him over there and not by me I'm good with!

I have to say, for some reason, I thought the bats were REALLY cute!  Don't ask me why... It was probably the plastic glass that was between us, though. :)

After we finished with the rain forest pyramid we headed outdoors to see the Festival of Lights, the REAL reason we came.  There were lots of people and it was pretty cold.  We tried to get some hot chocolate from a pop-up tent but WOW, it was HORRIBLE.  But even the hot chocolate couldn't stop the fun we had here... Take a look... 

 Loved the entrance...where I threw away a whole cup of nasty hot chocolate.  Just saying... I'm not bitter. though. :)

There was a "movie" that played every 15 minutes about the life of Jesus, that I thought was nice.  This was at the end/beginning when the whole city of "Bethlehem" is lit up.

As you walk along the guided path there are different figures lit to help you find your way.  There are toy soldiers and these angels that help you get started.  But, don't worry, it's really not as dark as the picture portrays.

I had to take a picture of the school of fish! :)

And the butterflies were really high up and were SO beautiful!  I loved the colors...

And the book nerd in me was jumping for joy when I saw the Polar Express display!  Do YOU Believe? :)

And for those that know me know I LOVE fairy tales and completely adored the castle.

Towards the end they even had Santa and his reindeer taking off.  It was really nice and would definitely go again!  The only disappointing part was they had a huge S'MORE tent where you roasted your own marshmallow and we missed it by maybe 5 minutes.  But other than that we had a really fun time.  It was so fun to get into the Christmas spirit before heading to North Carolina for Christmas with the boys!

Burger Fresh Fun

So, I don't normally post random restaurant reviews but this one comes with a story.  It's probably more, "You have to be there," but it's one of those memories I want to remember for a while.  As those who are close to me know my dad was disabled about a year ago after being in a 43-day coma suffering from liver failure.  I've been AMAZINGLY blessed to still have him with me (at all time, lol) and he seems to have recovered probably 90% of what he was before.  It's kind of nice to have someone laugh at all my shenanigans that I seem to get into constantly.  And it makes him laugh so it's all good.  

So one of my interests is Groupon.  It's a daily coupon service that (supposedly) gives a 50%+ coupon each day for local businesses.  On Groupon, I found a burger deal for $13 for two Burger Baskets.  I didn't know the place but it said it was voted Texas Monthly's best burger one year.  So, sounded good to me!  My bad habit with Groupon is not using them til the deadline comes.  So, one night I drug my dad with me to Tomball to try this amazing burger place.  Of course, we went around a normal dinner time, so traffic was HORRIBLE.  We waited and waited in traffic, expecting some nice, classic burger place.  But my GPS was not in an area where one of those type places would be.  Next thing you know we're pulling into an old Dairy Queen with the sign changed to Burger Fresh.  Oh my gosh, we LAUGHED and LAUGHED and LAUGHED.  We just waited in rush hour traffic over an hour to eat at a Dairy Queen. LOL  (Like I said, you probably are thinking, "Had to be there," but the laughing we did, and still do upon the memory of it, is quite classic.

As you can see, at night, the sign was hardly readable.  The Dairy Queen turned...Burger Fresh!

I did like how the decor supported the local high school. :) 

T

And the reason we came... The Best Burger plaque from Texas Monthly.  It has a crazy amount of toppings.  I didn't get them all...

But, it was HUGE...  And it was delicious!  The bun was really good, and all the toppings made it fantastic.  I couldn't quite eat it all, and my dad only ate half, but it was a fun time, and thanks to Groupon a pretty cheap dinner date.  The laughs, though, are pretty priceless.  And my dad still tells the story to friends and family. :)