Putting The "Magic" In Christmas

It is impossible to leave Gaylord National Resort's "Christmas on the Potomac" and not believe in all the magic and wonder that is this time of year. We were fortunate enough to attend a fun-filled day of magic and delightful mischief in and around the Gaylord Hotel and ICE! Show featuring the the whimsical ice styling of Merry Madagascar.

Our most awesome journey began with a few tasty morsels and three Shrektastic size glasses of Ogre milk. Yum! After gazing outward at the gorgeous Potomac river vista from the all glass front of the hotel's lower atrium and spotting a few of our most favorite Dreamworks characters, we decided to make our way to down to meet them in the flesh fur. A bit timid, Liam didn't make it up and into any photos with the animals, but make no mistake about it his eyes were as wide as saucers as he saw Po from Kung Fu Panda martial art'd his way over to give us a very enthusiastic wave. After saying hello to Gloria, Alex and King Julien from Madagascar as well as Shrek, Po and Puss in Boots we put on our jackets and made our way across the parking lot to the huge dome that houses the incredible ICE! show.

Once inside the enchanting ICE! tent we found ourselves watching a short video featuring a bit of the Merry Madagascar tale and showing us how the sculptors (from Harbin, China) made this winter wonderland out of ice in just 30 days. When the video was complete we were whisked away to don our blue parkas that we wore over top of our winter coats (you need two jackets when it's 0 degrees inside) and then we were off.

The sculptures inside ICE! were incredible and awe inspiring. Full of light and colored ice to make each and every sculpture come to life in its own unique way. Instantly we were transplanted to the warm tropical island that the movie was set in, even though we were double parka'd up.

With our trip to ICE! complete, we ventured back over to the hotel where we engaged in a scavenger hunt put on by none other than the incomparable Puss in Boots. It had us searching high and low for each of the clues that in the end spelled out a magic phrase that garnered the little Mister some fantastic Dreamworks loot. With our recent foray into geo-caching Liam was most excited about this part of the day and even wanted to do it a second time.

Instead  though, we hunkered down in the middle of the lower atrium for the nightly (FREE) Christmas tree lighting, complete with fountains choreographed to Christmas tunes, indoor snowfall and the entire Dreamworks cast listed above. This show is available nightly for free and starting yesterday you can meet the characters in the lobby for free too. Wahoo!

A super special THANK YOU to MomzShare and Gaylord National Resort for bringing this amazing Christmas experience to our family. We hope that you'll take a day this holiday season and go see it for yourself. As a parent there are only so many opportunities to share magic and this is most definitely one of those experiences...it's not to be missed!

Disclosure: MomzShare and Gaylord National provided my family with a private cookies and milk reception, tickets to ICE!, ice skating, meet the characters experience and parking. All opinions are my own.