ICE!

I told Matt we should go see the incredible ICE! exhibit I heard the Gaylord Texan put on.

He envisioned thousands of swans on tables. I think he was pleasantly surprised.

What ICE! really is: 14,000-square-feet of hand-carved sculptures made out of two million pounds of ice by artisans who are flown in from China. It takes them over a month to complete! To keep the ice from melting, the temperature inside the exhibit is kept at 9 degrees. All guests are therefore, thankfully, required to wear the provided parkas (very fashion-forward).

We were impressed from the second we stepped into the exhibit! It was amazing to realize that every single thing we saw was carved out of ice...

... including the above bridge and this forest:

Seriously, how cool is that? The icy forest led to Gingerbread Land...

... where Matt was a little too tempted by the giant ice candy:

Luckily, we avoided a Christmas Story-like incident and got to go see Santa...

... and ride down the ice slides carved out of his reindeer & sleigh:

Our hands were freezing (I forgot to bring gloves) so we tried not to take very many pictures after that (we could have taken hundreds, it was all so neat). So I'm not sure how we managed to take a picture of the candles and not the larger-than-life angel right next to them, but feel free to imagine what the angel looked like--she was beautiful.

Our favorite part ended up being the nativity. You can't tell from the pictures, but each member of the nativity scene was so detailed--even down to the baby lamb's wool. It was the last scene of the exhibit and a perfect note to end on.

We HIGHLY recommend ICE! to all of you Texans out there! Definitely beats dinner & a movie.