the season of the holi-dates.

in the spirit of the holidays there comes traditions. each year i think we add a new tradition, it's one of the fun parts of a fairly young relationship. you get to add or subtract things as you wish. this year we decided to not do the lights at the speedway. the year before it was at sunset park and soooo cool, when it moved north to the speedway, it just wasn't the same. this season we added 2 new ones. but I'm getting ahead of myself.

i have wanted to go to opportunity village for years, i mean forever. yet it never seemed to happen in multiple years past. finally this year tiffany, richard, and i made a plan to go and really get in the spirit. it was soooo beautiful! you go through the magical forest where each tree/set up is sponsored by a local business and decorated for the season. each one is sooo different and very cool.

santa!!!

its cold and wintery and makes you feel the full warmth of the season. after wandering around taking loads of pictures we warmed up with hot cocoa and funnel cakes, my favorite. it was sooo much fun and very christmassy. perfect to do the week after my race to get into the season.

while adding new things to our holiday season we took full advantage of living in las vegas and went to winter in venice at the venetian. they decorated the inside of the hotel and set up an ice skating rink outside near the gondolas! i had been wanting to go since i found out about it and when a holiday party we had planned on going to got cancelled the weekend after opportunity village we decided to go:)

richard had to pick up a gift card for my dad as his christmas present so it worked out perfect for a date night! we went to a new restaurant called I heart burgers, delicious. i had plans to take a picture of the fantastic chocolate shake with the cool spoon, but i was wayyy to hungry. after picking up the gift card we headed out front to pay for our skating passes, it was only $10 each for locals. our skate time was about 45 minutes away so we hung around people watching for awhile and i actually got a little nervous. im pretty sure i haven't skated since i was about 14 and wasn't really good then haha.

we got our skates and laced up all ready to go. we stepped out on the ice, except it wasnt really ice. it was more like puzzle pieces that fit together and could be found on a cruise ship. you got a 1/2 hour to skate and that was plenty. richard fell pretty quickly and was really good on his skates. he did turns and was wayy faster than i was. i was the slow one that looked down to make sure my feet were still there and going forward.

showing me his skills!

pretty!

it was soooo fun! the 1/2 hour was a perfect amount of time and i of course waited till the very end to fall haha. i was a little sore afterward and definitely ready to go. im so glad we went and got to do something a little different in las vegas!

of course no holiday would be complete without a visit to the conservatory at the bellagio:) last year we made the huge mistake of going on christmas eve, this year we had to fix that. the problem was we kept running out of time. with richard working sundays and still trying to fit everything else in we decided to wait till the day after christmas and go during the day when we were both off instead.

it's totally different when you go during the day, and i don't think we ever have. it was busy monday but not as crazy as the year before thank goodness. the conservatory is seriously one of my favorite places on earth! we ran into jodi and her adorable boys but were only able to chat for a minute because there were so many people everywhere! i was hoping to go out to the water show before we left, but decided there were too many people and we would do it another time.

thats probably what i looked like skating the weekend before!

sometimes i take living in las vegas for granted and dont appreciate the cool things we have here. i know one day when i move on to my next adventure i will look back with fond memories of it. until then, its time to enjoy our holiday traditions, new and old:)