Ice! Ice! Baby!

"MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE...GIFT!" That is something you hear very frequently in the Dennis household around Christmas. We are here in Dallas, Texas and are having a wonderful Christmas Holiday visiting with Forest and Cheryll. Last night we had the opportunity to visit the Gaylord Texan. It is a massive hotel (Opryland style) in Grapevine, Texas where they were holding the first annual ICE. The picture above is an Angel completely carved out of ice. This is a picture of the exterior of the Texan. It is located somewhat out of the city and so it has a very country feel to it. As we drove up there was Christmas everywhere. Trees, Santa, Reindeer, Presents, Reindeer water skiing...you know, the traditional stuff.

Inside is pretty breath-taking. ICE is a walk-through exhibit of these amazing sculptures. They have to display it in a room that is 9 degrees so each visitor gets to sport these lovely golden jackets. Obviously Frosty doesn't have to wear one because he is made out of snow. We never knew it could be that cold in Texas but turn on the fans, shut the doors, build a crazy amount of ice sculptures and throw them in a beautiful hotel and you're walking in a winter wonderland!

HISTORY OF ICE CARVING IN CHINA

Ice Lantern Festivals can be traced back as far as the late Ming and early Qing dynasties of Imperial China. Five hundred years ago the far northern province of Heilongjiang had an indigenous population whose life was similar to the American Eskimo with one large difference. Where the Eskimos are sea hunters, the people of Hailongjiang were forest hunters.

If you ever get the chance to go to ICE you should do it. Forest and Blake even got to slide down ice slides (plus they gave us free hot chocolate). The rest of our holiday schedule involves relaxing, enjoying family, opening gifts, seeing Narnia and visiting Bekah's hometown church tomorrow. We miss all of our friends and family and we hope you all have a chance to remember the amazing gift of Jesus, as God came to earth to pay the ultimate price for our sins.