Merry Christmas from Hollywild!

Well, it's a little fuzzy, but it says "Merry Christmas from Hollywild"....which is where I think Patrick and I are going to make an annual pilgramage to see their Christmas lights as long as we're in Greenville! Patrick had read about the Holiday Safari, and he thought that it sounded like something that I'd really like. To give a little background information, Hollywild! is a place that houses animals that have starred in movies & commercials; they've got a variety of critters...but of course, at night it was hard to see them. If you go at Christmastime, you drive through (I think normally you ride on safari buses) and can marvel at the sheer number of lights....every tree is wrapped, they've got illuminated arches over the drive path, they've got inflatable decorations, whole lit scenes...it's really quite fun. It struck us halfway through that when we do this next year, we'll have a 6-month old!!! Wow. Still doesn't seem real.

Here's some of the lit scenes...I think these are penguins....And below are just a few examples of the extent to which they wrap their trees...

















...and here's the Red Baron, ready to celebrate Christmas....

And one thing that Hollywild! has that I'm pretty sure that no one else has is the "Enchanted Deer Forest" which, in reality, is more like the "Hordes of Deer in a Pen" but I guess it sounds better when you think of it as both enchanted and as a forest.

And let me tell you, we weren't the only ones stupid enough to fork out $3 for a paper sack full of deer pellets (the kind you feed the deer, not the kind that the deer leave when they're done eating) to try to entice the deer to come up & eat out of your hand. There were TONS of cars, rednecks in pickup trucks talking about how they "wished they'd had their guns," teenyboppers in their VW bug, and families in SUVs. LOTS of families in SUVs. And you've never heard such noises people (us included!) trying to use to lure the deer to their cars. For the record, kissy noises, clicking noises, and "Here deery, deery, deery!" don't really work. Deer aren't that smart, and there was enough food on the ground to keep them fed for weeks, so they were pretty much just sniffing around, going where they wanted to go...but we did get some good pictures. And, for the record, we both DID get deer to eat out of our hands...but not before we spread enough deer pellets in the car to keep a small deer family happy for a couple days.

Here's Patrick's arm, trying to lure a deer to the car...

...and here's another shot of a deer:
















And here's a shot (somewhat dim) of the horde of deer and, for some reason, an ostrich...(the ostrich is right in the middle of the shot, with two spindly legs instead of four spindly legs.)

We did have fun at Hollywild!...and let me tell you, there's no shortage of lights & displays...here are just a few to leave you with...