A day at the Gaylord Texan

 We always get together with the Hooks at Christmas, and this year we opted to spend the day with them in Grapevine at the Gaylord Texan. We had tickets to the Santa themed Escape the Room challenge at 1, so we met up at 11 for lunch at Uncle Julio's before going over to the hotel to wait for our appointment. The hotel is really beautiful at Christmas so we knew the girls would enjoy walking around while we waited.

 We were hoping we would be alone in our group for the game, but they put a family of 3 with us. It turned out to be ok and they were a lot of fun (and helpful) in us finding the golden key and escaping before time ran out. We were given 40 minutes, but we got out in 21. 

 After that, Heather had the bright idea to go ice skating, so we got tickets for the girls and Nick and Will. She can't ice skate due to her hip and I had no desire to risk falling and hurting myself, so we watched instead. But we didn't plan ahead for that, so it was really cold outside and none of us were properly dressed for ice skating anyway. Kate has been wanting to try for a long time, and she was super excited....until she got out on the ice. Turns out, she has discovered she is not a fan and wouldn't even leave the wall because she didn't want to fall.

 I decided not to torture her any longer, and she and I went back inside the hotel for hot cocoa while everyone else skated for a little while. It turned out to be a good decision.

 We stopped by the Grapevine Mills Mall for just a little bit (Will had to visit a specific store so the girls all went to the Disney store and spent some money) before letting the kids pick our dinner spot (Chick-fil-a). Then it was time to head home.