‘Tis the Season

 

This week’s Sunday Stills Challenge is to share photos of things that remind us of the holiday season.

My family has a favorite and festive holiday tradition that we have done every December for the past 15 years. We started this tradition the same year that my twin sons were born here in New Mexico. This was also the same year that this holiday tradition called River of Lights, due to it’s location alongside the Rio Grande River, was created at the Albuquerque Aquarium and Botanic Gardens.

Yep! My twinlings share the same birthday as the Albuquerque BioPark River of Lights.

This year my kidlets and I visited the Albuquerque BioPark’s River of Lights display on Thursday night, perfect timing for this Sunday Stills photography challenge. So I’ll share a bunch of the photos that I took while we were there.

 

Many of the light displays are animated, like this roping cowboy teddy bear riding his rocking horse. 

 

There is always holiday music at the River of Lights. 

 

And musical light displays, too.

 

You can purchase hot chocolate (adult hot cocoa and beverages, too!) along with Christmas cookies and Gingerbread kids, too.

 

Well it’s a Jack-in-the-Box. You know I just had to get a photo with Jackson! 

 

You just never know what kinds of light displays you’ll see at the River of Lights, but this isn’t a typical holiday light display, because the BioPark is comprised of the Rio Grande Zoo, the Botanic Gardens and the Aquarium.

So, you know you’ll see some sea creatures, like this larger than life octopus. 

 

And a beautiful stingray.

 

And since you’re strolling through the Botanic Gardens, you can count on seeing some flowers.

 

Some insects, too, like this very large centipede. Eeek!

 

And you’ll always see real flowers and plants, too.

 

 But no holiday light display would be complete without a colorful scorpion!

 

And since we are in the southwest, we must have cactus and a coyote or two.

 

Thank you New Mexico BioPark for giving our family such a unique and special holiday tradition!

 

As you stroll along through the River of Lights, you have to remember that the BioPark includes the Rio Grande Zoo, too!

And that means you’ll see life-size giraffes!

 

A life-size animated lion that opens his mouth to show off his huge teeth!

 

And a ginormous animated rhino that shakes his head up and down to remind you just how large and imposing his horn is!

 

And a peaceful Serengeti vista complete with grazing zebra. 

 

One of our favorite light displays is this animated elephant duo with the larger elephant drinking water from a river and then squirting it at his friend. Lots of action and fun!

 

At the Botanic Gardens there is a real working farm. And no farm is complete without a hard working tractor.

 

And we all know that a good farm requires a good looking truck to haul the hay.

And my daughter, Jen was thrilled to discover that they included chickens, and a rooster or two, too! 

 

And when it’s time to ride over the river and through the woods, it’s a necessity to have an animated horse-drawn sleigh.

 

But soon, we were at a crossroads. Which way should we go….This Way….or That Way? 

 

 

The bison and butterflies were stampeding That Way.

 

 

So, we chose the path less traveled and went This Way, across a sparkling bridge beside a lake.

 

Where we saw larger than life-size, colorful, tropical birds beside our path.

 

We took a little rest beside the lake, on a bench, to enjoy the beautiful views of the sparkling lights reflecting on the water, and the holiday music wafting across the lake.

 

We were joined by some friendly critters, like this larger than life size heron.

 

And this frog perched on his lily pad.

 

After our lakeside rest, we snuck across the bridge over a moat into the heavily guarded castle.

 

We had to be very stealthy. Guards were everywhere!

 

The life size dinosaur with animated jaws was quite frightening! 

 

Some trick illusion photography gave the beast a different perspective.

 

The sunflowers were a little suspicious, too. They could easily blind you if you weren’t careful.

But the Penguin Light Show was loads of fun and very cute!

I can’t imagine any holiday display that didn’t include a Christmas Train, can you?

This one pulls decorated metal farolitos with little flickering candles inside each one.

It just wouldn’t be Christmas without Frosty the Snowman!

 

But my favorite light display of all is this Pegasus with animated wings.

See? The Pegasus is flying!

 

Thanks for joining us while we strolled through the Albuquerque BioPark’s River of Lights. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we do every year.

Merry Christmas from Lisa, Jen, Jax and Jem!