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ALL of our travel is “AROUND” Christmas and never ON Christmas. This year we visited “Holiday Lights” at the coast (and why I’m so incredibly behind in commenting – I had no internet at the hotel). And while it was beautiful I am so glad to be home with nowhere to go until 2020.  We arrived fairly early, just before dusk so we could walk through and get the lay of the land before ealking through a second time after dark.  The displays were animated and themed.

Shore Acres is literally perched on a cliff above the Pacific Ocean and began as a private estate for Louis J. Simpson, a shipbuilder. Simpson developed the 3 story mansion complete with an indoor heated pool and ballroom as his “summer home”.  The surrounding grounds included 5 acres of formal gardens full of shrubs , trees and flowering plants brought from around the world by himself and various lumbermen.  There is even a 100 foot lily pond and caretaker’s cottage.  The cottage still stands and was really decorated cute!  I’d live there.  I really wish I had seen the original mansion, but it has since been torn down after a fire in 1921 and the rebuild was never finished because of the depression and fell into disrepair.  Oregon bought the property in 1942 for use as a public park.  The gardens, lily pond and caretakers cottage were restored while the mansion was razed.

Shore Acres Holiday Lights is by decorated sponsors and volunteers.  This was the 33rd Annual event. and is famous for its beautiful 7 acre botanical gardens and Japanese lily pond on the Oregon coast among the trees.  It has over 350,000 lights, animated displays, Santa, choirs… A beautiful holiday tradition for the whole family.

Because of growing families with plenty of munchkins being born and in-laws to accommodate, one of hubby’s sister’s family traditions is to celebrate the weekend before as a LARGE group and then be at each respective home for Christmas itself or with their in-laws.  As the family has grown, Christmas dinner became a larger and larger production.  Eventually instead of a “dinner”  it became a “cocktail” party with each person bringing an appetizer type dish for 20.  So Christmas dinner became a HAPPY HOUR and it has worked out fantastic over the years.  Everyone pretty much has a “signature” dish so we end up with a WIDE variety of everything from homemade Egg Nog to Salads and Chicken Skewers on the BBQ with plenty of tasty fudges and goodies too.

Even on the years we travel to SIL’s party, we are home by Christmas itself.  I love having our tree and decorations with a relaxed Christmas Day schedule.  We do try and take 1 trip to see some sort of “City Sidewalks” type event.

These are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip to Holiday Lights at Shore Acres on the coast this year.  We took some time to play in a couple of the small towns and stayed over so we didn’t have to drive the windy roads late at night in the rain. We were fortunate to be able to have lunch with an old friend to catch up the next day before we drove home.  It was super rainy, COLD as all get out, but ALSO really beautiful. It’s a walking tour so umbrellas were a MUST, but also a hindrance at really seeing the true beauty of it all.