As part of our extended Christmas celebrating, last week John and I and our
friend Karen went to "Night of a Million Lights" at Give Kids the World here
in Orlando. (Imagine the old Osborne Lights from Disney, except spread out
over a much larger area.)
Naturally, we did our best to dress for the
occasion.
:D
The GKTW village includes an entire residential neighborhood, usually filled
with the families of the kids visiting. With Covid it's all been shut down,
of course, so they decided to deck out the empty houses for this fundraising
event. I can't imagine they'll ever be able to do this again, so I'm so
glad John insisted we buy tickets.
Because this was much, MUCH more than just a decorated neighborhood:
In addition to the residential houses, there are big theaters,
restaurants, accessible rides, a carousel, and even a castle on
property. Everything is donated and built by
volunteers, but you can tell most are professional theme park folks. This place seriously rivals Disney!
Total Main Street vibes, right? This is the Wishing Tree; you hit the button
and a little magic happens - I'll show you soon.
Each
house's lights were sponsored by a local company. Most just put a sign out
front, but a few - like this one from Ripley's Believe It Or Not - swam the extra mile:
Sometimes I'll write a pun so groan-worthy that John will get out of his
chair, walk across the house, and give me a fist-bump. "Bigger bow" was one
of those puns. Ah thank you verramuch.
I couldn't find this .gif on Instagram, so you get it here:
This tree was one of my favorite things there - wait 'til you see it in
action, hnnng.
