In Williamsburg the holiday season is kicked off every year the first weekend in December with an event called The Grand Illumination. What this basically entails is the colonial area being decked out in lavish decorations and a variety of feasts and entertainments all capped off with a huge fireworks show. Mimi and BaBob came to visit for the celebrations. We started off with baking and decorating gingerbread cookies. Jack got pretty into the decorating for about 10 minutes at a time then he would wander off the play and come back to decorate a few more cookies and eat the decorations. Dan and I got to enjoy some adut time and got a babysitter so we could join Mimi and Babob for a lovely dinner at the Williamsburg Inn followed by a concert at the Governor's Palace. The meal was delicious, but the real highlight was the concert. The Palace was entirely lit by candles and the performers were in colonial garb. The group was a quartet featuring a harpsichord (one actually from the 17th century), violin, bass, and flute as well as a singer who came in and out. The music was lovely and the setting only made it better. We also took part in a breakfast with Santa. We munched chocolate chip pancakes and homemade doughnuts while Jack got his face painted, decorated even more cookies, and sat nearish to Santa. He was pretty much in heaven the entire time and we had a hard time getting him to cycle down for a few hours afterwards! For the Illumination itself we joined the hordes in the colonial area and ataked out a space for ourselves by the magazine. There was a stage where various choral and musical groups performed, we even got to hear the Fife and Drums in the 50th anniversary Illumination performance. After dark the fireworks commenced. They were set off at three different areas around town so no matter where you looked there was something to see. We were right next to the show at the Magazine so we had an exceptionally good spot. Jack did great with the "works". He was a little hesitant and did cover his ears but he lasted through the entire show - about 30-45 minutes. Finally at the end he told us "No works" but by then the show was over so we were more than happy to oblige. It was a rather grand way to ring in the holiday season!
