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A beautiful warm, sunny day in Dallas, Texas! We drive to the Dallas Arboretum (and stop for lunch at In-N-Out on the way). Buy tickets online for the Arboretum and when we arrive the boys each get a map of the arboretum which they think is the best thing ever…it’s the simple things in life right? We walk to the Tasting Plaza where today they are sampling potato recipes. We walk to see the downtown Dallas skyline past White Rock Lake. We cross the bridge and stop and sit on the grass at a fountain to enjoy the sunshine and warm weather. This Texas weather is amazing! We decide we want to go find each of the 12 Days of Christmas gazebos on display for the Holiday at the Arboretum season. We spend the day walking through the beautiful Arboretum and we find and visit all 12 gazebos with music and Christmas decor at each. It was so fun and so festive and a great way to explore the gardens! We also find the musical tree, a 50 foot tall tree with 42 thousand lights and holiday music. We find another giant tree decorated with shiny ornaments at Crape Myrtle Allee. The boys run up and down Crape Myrtle Alle and stopped to play at the Toad Corners fountain at the other end. The boys LOVED the giant toad statues and water spouts! They play forever at the fountains and then we decide we better continue on to see the magical Christmas Village before we have to head home. The Christmas Village was absolutely incredible! The Village is inspired by the European Christmas Markets, or Christkindlmarket, and the kids could go inside and explore all the charming little “shops” such as the candy shop, toy shop, bakery, bookstore, post office, flower shop, and music shop. Inside each shop the walls were covered in decorations and illustrations. The kids could find something hidden in the illustrations to win a prize. The boys loved the scavenger hunt through the village shops so much! It was such a cute and brilliant idea and so well done! The boys went into as many shops as they could and won little prizes like small toys, bookmarks, candies, and Christmas bells. Finally it was time head home and the boys didn’t want to leave! We drove back to meet up with family, then we went to dinner at Babe’s Chicken. It was the best fried chicken and ALL you can eat family style sides including mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, corn, biscuits and honey. It was all SO GOOD! It was a great first day in Dallas!