We wish you a Merry Christmas

http://www.christmas-carol-music.org/Lyrics/../SATB/WeWishYou.html

White Christmas

http://www.zackdanziger.com/teaching/pdf/white_christmas.pdf

Let it Snow

http://www.slaac.com/Music/let%20it%20snow.pdf

The First Noel

http://www.8notes.com/scores/1561.asp

Joy to the World

http://www.8notes.com/scores/1525.asp

O Come All Ye Faithful

http://www.operationlettertosanta.com/Music/o_come_all_ye_faithful.htm

The “Let it Snow” limited edition session depicts a nostalgic winter scene that is only available for a limited time, once a year from December 3-5th. The images from this session make gorgeous holiday gifts, canvas art prints and cards. Guaranteed in time for Christmas.

The session and artists choice 11×14 print is only $68.00 per child with a nonperishable food item for Paul’s Pantry.
Add-on children into the same set for only $35 per child. Call today to schedule your date and time: 920-436-0433.

Call today before this limited edition fills up. 920-436-0433. Coupons can’t be used for limited edition sessions.

Only once a year December 3rd-5th. Sessions are half-hour blocks.

$68.00 includes the session and artists choice 11×14 print. Sessions are pre-paid and based on individual child per 11×14.

This session is for ages 9 months-10 years old only, no adults or pets.

Outfit changes are not permitted, props provided by artessence.

For the “Let it Snow” sessions we encourage the clothing to be cream, gray or brown color (sweaters, hats, mittens, scarves, jackets) for a traditional classic look OR bright colored scarves, hats, mittens, coats, boots for a contemporary look.

artessence, LLC 920-436-0433.

Even though its not quite Thanksgiving yet, LEGOLAND California is already decked out for Christmas.

Master Model Builders trimmed the Christmas tree in front of the Capitol in Miniland USA this morning in preparation for LEGOLAND California’s Holly Jolly Holidays presented by Western Dental kicking off Nov. 30 following the annual tree lighting ceremony.

The Miniland Washington, D.C. Inauguration scene has been replaced by a LEGO® interactive marching band wearing green and white uniforms with festive red sashes. The animated band marches back and forth while playing “Jingle Bell Rock” and a familiar “ho-ho-ho” can be heard when Park guests push buttons cueing different sounds of the season. Holly wreaths have also been added to the eaves of the Capitol above a 20-inch-tall LEGO Christmas tree trimmed with more than 500 ornaments. Nearby, a line of minilanders wait to sit on a mini Santa’s lap while carolers sing on the Capitol steps. Other holiday models include children building snowmen, an elf workshop, a horse drawn carriage, toy soldiers and, of course, presents under the tree.

The entire theme park is being transformed into a holiday wonderland featuring vibrant holiday decorations including a new LEGO snowman complete with top hat and black coat tails that stands 5-feet tall, features 37,000 LEGO bricks and took nearly 200 hours to build. Children may also pose with a special life-size LEGO display of Santa, his sleigh and two reindeer. The 7-foot tall display features 51,100 bricks and provides a unique photo opportunity during the holidays.

LEGOLAND California’s Holly Jolly Holidays starts with a bang with its annual tree lighting ceremony Nov. 30 at 5:30 p.m. featuring special guests Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott and a performance by one the hottest children’s entertainment groups, The Jumpitz™. Spelling and McDermott are currently in production for the fifth season of their popular and record-breaking reality series “Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood,” scheduled to premiere in Spring, 2010 on Oxygen.

The world’s largest LEGO Christmas tree stands more than 30-feet-tall, is made of more than 245,000 forest green DUPLO® bricks, adorned with more than 240 LEGO ornaments and surrounded by packages and LEGO friends the whole family can enjoy.

LEGOLAND California’s Holly Jolly Holidays runs through Dec. 31 and guests can enjoy festive entertainment every weekend including carolers, strolling musicians and nightly fireworks Dec. 26 through Dec. 30. From Dec. 3 through Dec. 24, a child will randomly be selected to help pull the switch that lights up the LEGO Christmas tree during a fun ceremony right before the Park closes each night.

Also, the sparkling musical “Let it Snow” returns with exciting songs, dancing and a holiday story to warm guest’s hearts. The musical holiday show features the Park’s signature song, “Season of Imagination” and runs every weekend from Nov. 27 through Dec. 13 and daily Dec. 19 through Dec. 25.

The holiday season concludes with the one-and-only Kids’ New Year’s Eve party in southern California on Dec. 31 with festivities beginning at 4 p.m. For more information on the LEGOLAND theme park, event schedules, hours and prices visit www.LEGOLAND.com or call (760) 918-LEGO.

Christmas was one of my most favorite times at LEGOLAND. I was the one that decorated and designed the scenes in Miniland at Christmas for 4 years. You can even see the candy canes I designed in the picture.

So, if you are in the area, stop by and check out LEGOLAND for their Holly Jolly Holidays celebration.

Ditemi se questa canzone non vi fa venire in mente il Natale!!! Finalmente si avvicina il giorno più bello dell’anno e io sono già nel pieno dello spirito natalizio, ho anche messo questo bel tema festoso al blog…. Mancano solo 35 giorni e ci sono regali da comprare e casa da addobbare!!!

Amo l’inverno, il freddo, la neve e soprattutto il Natale, fosse per me vivrei nel paese del Natale come in Nightmare before Christmas. Qui a Bologna per le strade hanno già acceso le decorazioni e ci sono luci sugli alberi e sotto i portici e le torri sono illuminate, e poi non ci scordiamo dell’albero in piazza Maggiore!!! Inoltreil 21 novembre si inaugura anche il mercatino di Natale in strada Maggiore e andrò sicuramente a comprare un pezzetto di torrone.             Domenica farò anche le pettole, dolcetti tarantini che inaugurano il periodo natalizio e che attendo di gustare tutto l’anno, magari poi vi scrivo la ricetta… Nei prossimi giorni conto anche di andare all’Ikea a comprare le decorazioni per il mio albero e già che mi trovo a Casalecchio farò anche un salto alla pista di pattinaggio sul ghiaccio. Poi devo pernsare ai regali, tanti come al solito e spero di non dissanguarmi troppo.

Come ogni anno vedrò “A Christmas carol” di Dickens ma quest’anno al cinema e in 3d visto che a breve trasmetteranno nelle sale questo stupendo classico in versione computerizzata e riadattata dalla Disney, ho visto già il trailer e credo sarà un seccessone perciò lo consiglio vivamente a tutti….

Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

It doesn’t show signs of stopping,
And I brought some corn for popping;
The lights are turned way down low,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Incredibile,oggi nemmeno all’ombra faceva freddo.Nemmeno dopo 3 ore seduta in 15 cm di neve,quella croccante,quella a cristalli.Boots slacciati e felpa.Del freddo nemmeno un brivido.

E la cosa è preoccupante,dio siamo già oltre la seconda metà di novembre.E sembra marzo.

Che tutta quest’ansia sia dovuta solo al ricordo della scorsa stagione?!Stagione che per altro ricordo con amore solo se penso alle trascorse condizioni metereologiche,neve a camionate.Forse sì.

Fattostà che non sto nella pelle.Ho addirittura il rimpianto del male alle gambe,o di quelle fantastiche giornate in cui dimentichi i guanti e ogni volta che stringi i cricchetti è una bestemmia.Quando sali in seggiovia con il tipo che hai conosciuto la sera prima e con nobile disinvoltura attacchi un bottone pazzesco,ignara che dal tuo naso penzoli una stalattite di moccio congelato.Quando ti squilla il cellulare e devi rispondere perchè è-proprio-la-telefonata- che-aspetti-da-tutto-il-giorno, e ovviamente sei nel mezzo di quel collegamento iper flat/contropendenza,e finisce che devi spingerti per mezz’ora e manco uno skier che ti offre una bacchetta.Ebbene,talmente ne ho voglia,che mi manca tutto questo.

Io quindi sto qua,con lo Yeti.Ad aspettare il ben noto risveglio “Hei è tutto bianco,viene grossa come pop-corn!!”.

I was just listening to “Let It Snow” by Michael Bublé while sitting at my desk at the office in a sleeveless shirt, open-toed shoes, with the windows wide open and a comfortable breeze wafting through.

It was so weird.

I knew it would be weird.  I knew living in the southern hemisphere and having seasons opposite to those back home in the US would probably play mind tricks on me, but I didn’t realize how weird it would actually be.  It’s different even than being in Florida or somewhere tropical, and I think that that’s what I expected.  But even in Florida it’s a bit cooler than summertime.  There’s still a difference.

I feel so happy that it’s summer.  I love that I’ll get to go to the beach and soak up the sun.  I’m happy that the days are getting longer and I can go camping and swimming and boating.  But I hate that I’m missing the crispness fall brings.  That I’m missing warm fuzzy feelings you get when you’re cozy under 3 or 4 blankets with a cup of hot chocolate, candles glowing, Christmas tree brightly lit in the corner, watching Elf or White Christmas.  Sigh.  (Ok, don’t feel too sorry for me.  I’ll be home for a few weeks in December, and I get to do plenty of cozy-blanket cuddling.)

Undoubtedly, the best part of having to conjure my own feelings of Christmas spirit (since they aren’t being spurred by the weather) is that it helps me fight the urges to do too much shopping, spend too much money, and generally buy into the lie that Christmas is about how much you give.  (I think this is a new plot to tempt us to spend money.  ”Give to others,” they tell us.  So we feel less greedy because we’re buying for others, but we’re still buying.  And buying.  And buying.)   I’m not going to preach here because we each have to decide for ourselves what Christmas means to us and how we’re going to allow it to affect us and those around us.  Each of us has to decide where the line between giving and spending blurs.

What I am going to do is declare “Let it Snow!  Let it Shine!”  Wherever you are, northern or southern hemisphere, whether you’re experiencing snow or sunshine, Christmas is a great time to remember that Jesus came to save us all.  That He is the greatest gift of all.  His is the sacrifice that makes our sins whiter than snow.  His is the light that shines in the darkness and draws all to Him.

He is why I love Christmas.

___________________________________________________

Christmas last year.  :)

     I took this photo last year at the Howell Nature Center. This is a female Snowy Owl (the bird that plays Hedwig in Harry Potter is always male because they are more thoroughly white).

Here’s one thing you can do:

After getting completely soaked, they came inside, drank hot chocolate with extra marshmallows, and played board games. It felt a lot like December instead of October. I’m hoping for a few nice days before Halloween since we haven’t made our annual Halloween movie yet.

The cuteness is too overwhelming for words

I first heard about the adorable idea of Teacup Pigs in one of my favorite books Let It Snow, which I have raved about before.  In Lauren Myracle’s story “The Patron Saint of Pigs” a huge part of the plot revolves around getting a teacup pig for one of the characters.  I thought the idea was great, but I thought I remembered reading an interview with Lauren saying that teacup pigs didn’t really exist, she’d just made them up for the story.

Well, I must have been halucinating because they are totally real!!!!  So if you have an extra thousand dollars lying around, you can buy your very own teacup pig.  The baby ones are small enough to fit in a teacup (hence the name) and the fully grown ones only get to be about a foot tall.

Look! They like cats!!!

My new goal in life is to go back to England and bring back one of these little pigs (maybe two….then I could become a breeder as my full time job!!!).

EDIT:  Apparently a lot of people have been commenting that these pigs are not really as small as they appear to be and that these breeders might not be on the up and up.  So I think I will just stick to cats for now.

Jen

P.S.  Is it wrong that I want to buy another copy of Let It Snow just because it has a new cover???

It’s 1am and I just finished John Green’s Paper Towns. This is significant because I’ve owned this book for a while and it’s always been just close enough to the top of my reading list to make note of it, but it has taken me this long to actually sit down and read it. I started it earlier this week, and if it wasn’t for the writing of my own book, I would have finished this book in two nights, max.

I just confess right away that I am a huge fan of John Green the person. Finding him was really what kicked my ass to start writing again because I realized, as a young adult author, a person can do a lot of really good things in this world. The amount of joy he has put out into the world is remarkable and I only wish half of us were as willing to go to the lengths he does to, as he and his have coined, “Reduce World Suck.” I try hard not to tiptoe on anyone’s stuff, but “Reducing World Suck” is an idea that I am happily stealing to weave into my own life. It is part of the reason I started this blog. I want to do my part to Reduce World Suck, and he and his brother are the people that inspired it. I think he and his brother have inspired it in a lot of people.

Anyway, my very first story by him was actually a short story in the novel Let It Snow that he collaborated on with two other authors. His story was my second favorite in that book (Maureen Johnson’s was my favorite, sorry John.) I went out and picked up Looking for Alaska, which I actually had trouble finding at first. I ended up finding it at Half Priced Books after two trips to a Barnes & Noble failed me. I read it. Loved it. And shortly after that picked up An Abundance of Katherines and I ordered Paper Towns on Amazon.

The thing about his books are this: All three of his novels are very much alike. The boys are very similar and the girls are very similar, or at least, what the girls do to the boys are very similar, not unlike most young adult books with a girl main character and what the boy in the story does to said girl. Some people are put off by his seemingly retelling of the same story (it’s not) but what I like the very most is that his characters feel like very real young adults, while most young adults in YA fiction feel very much like literary young adults. John Green’s young adults are awkward and vocal and not always likable. (One character in Paper Towns, Ben, constantly refers to girls as honeybunnies. Makes me want to murder someone. He ends up being a great character.) They have very specific interests and quirks that aren’t too quirky and they are positively faulted in all the ways a young adult is. He loves his Manic Pixie Dream Girls though. Woo boy does he. If there’s a main girl in his stories, WATCH OUT. They are little Pandora’s Boxes done up in ribbons and glitter.

Here’s the other thing about John Green’s books: yes they have similar themes, but they have the feeling of growing maturity. Even though they are not sequels of each other, they sort of feel like it. They pass us from shocking childhood up through calm and decisive adulthood. The characters at the end of Paper Towns are all very much grown up, even thought they are more or less the same ages of the characters in the previous books. We started with the young idealistic characters, moved into the quirky middle years, and have graduated to the heavy hearted, complicated end of an era years. I love them. I can’t recommend them enough.

Even if his Let It Snow short story was second best.

The Book

Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life-dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge-he follows.

After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues-and they’re for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees the girl he thought he knew.

Oh sweet mother of pearl, why are there so damn many people in my house?  I love them, but they cannot loiter around me asking me to explain every noise I make  and every look on my face for the next seventy six days of summer break.  Why am I so fascinating?  I don’t want to be fascinating, and they need to get the hell out of my house, bless their little hearts. 

I cannot even think straight.

Studio work is ok, because I can put in earplugs and pretend I can’t hear them.  But the writing?  I do not have two lucid thoughts to rub together.   It would be so rude to walk around with earplugs in all day, but I’m considering it. 

And the big one.  Oy.  The big one?  He needs to get a damn job, but quick.  Dude’s making me nuts.

Being a parent would be so much easier if there weren’t actual children involved.   And there are so many of them, I swear they’ve multiplied like rabbits in the past week.   Like fucking rabbits.

All the parents reading this are probably nodding and saying, “Oh, I’m so with you sister.  What do you say we duct-tape the darlings in the closet and meet for a drink?” 

All the non-parents are saying, “That is horrible.  Those poor babies.”   But the non-parents don’t yet know of the moments when biting your tongue is a major achievement, and loving your children in theory is as good as it’s going to get.   Ambivalence is a concept you come to know well once you procreate.

They are precious, they are wonderful, they are beautiful.  They need to get the hell out of my house now.

Thank you for listening.  I feel nicer now.  And a bit guilty.

In my thoughts at moments like this?  David Sedaris’ “Let It Snow.” 

Let It Snow

by David Sedaris

Last weekend, my family and I went on a road trip to the Pictured Rocks area of the Upper Peninsula (UP).  Every time we go up north, we stop first in Mackinaw City – a very touristy little town right at the southern end of the Mackinaw Bridge.  Unfortunately, this year it was still a bit too early in the season for all the shops to be open. Pretty much every touristy thing in the upper peninsula opens on the first of May. If anyone is planning on visiting northern Michigan any time soon, I would recommend visiting Mackinac (still pronounced Mack-in-aw) Island – one of my favorite places. Its a small island that can only be reached by ferry where cars are not allowed. Everyone walks, rides bikes, or horses.

This trip we spent most of the time in Munising. These next few pictures are from along Sand Point – where oddly enough there isnt much sand.

The last few pictures were taken on the way to Munising. My dad pulled over the car just before the Seney Wildlife Preserve when he saw this lake in the sunset. Of course I had to get out too and take my pictures.

Next post: Portraits in Blaney Park

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

In February 2009, being in London and sinking in a feet or two of snow was quite a novelty to both myself and most of the population.  It caused utter chaos; and yet brought high spirits and – the best bit! – a day off work!! WOOO!

I was fortunate to be travelling back from Pluckley, Kent when it first started snowing. Snow in the countryside has always been a particular favourite of mine… pretty glistening trees and lots of dark, gothic-looking buildings and country lanes.

How picturesque! (click on the images for higher res!)

The next day was spent in my current home town of Peckham, London.  I live next door to a huge park (burgess park) where we spent the majority of our day!!  I have a few pictures from around the town:

If you’d like to see what I got up to during the day, please visit my facebook album – my husband and my best friend starred in and helped take these, and make the day as amazing as it was!!

No idea which one to read first. Which one do you recommend?

“Asshat!”

I freeze for a few seconds outside the school, where I had been talking, waiting for the school bus to arrive. My eyes are wide open in surprise. Oh my god!

That’s what I heard a few days ago. Those of you who have read “Let It Snow” by John Green, Maureen Johnson, & Lauren Myracle(Go Google It!) know that is the comeback that JP in John’s story gives. Hence my surprise. Of course, it was very awesome. But today I heard….

“Asshat!”

Again. Wow. I turn around wildly, trying to look for the source. Except.. it doesn’t sound quite like it… But now I hear it again.

“Asshat!”

Hmm. It sounds more like…. Assphat. Or Asfat. Could it be someone’s name? Could I have misheard it the first time?

Maybe. And yet, maybe not.

…. We Shall Never Know.

So I’m still pretty exhausted from ECAASU and updates from there will follow but I really just had to say this.

COLUMBIA, WHY DID YOU NOT CANCEL CLASSES?!

@#$%*#%(&($%$%@&*%$%^ you.

There is about 7.5 inches of snow in Central Park, and that is likely to rise given the snow is freakin’ pounding outside. I went out to get a cup of coffee (that was a mistake, more about that later) and my hands lost all feeling and sensation after about 30 seconds. My hometown has about 10 inches, and it only took about 4 to cancel 6 high schools there. I sort of understand the rationale that because we’re in the city it should be easier for us to go to class… but only sort of. Just because Columbia is a city school doesn’t mean that it’s that much easier to get to class. Fine, Rockefeller Center is pretty well cleared out, but Columbia never does a great job of clearing snow. Ever.

So Columbia, why won’t you cancel classes? Here are a couple reasons why you should-
1.) When it looks that scary outside, most students aren’t going to leave their rooms, guaranteed.
2.) When it looks that scary outside, professors aren’t going to want to leave their homes.
3.) Your sidewalks, walkways, etc aren’t even plowed fully. I thought I was going to slip and die a couple times while out there.
4.) Prove that you’re better than NYU

That being said, Columbia definitely fails at cancelling classes / alerting students that it has no intention of cancelling classes. I would definitely appreciate some sort of message longer than one sentence acknowledging the fact that going outside today for class is going to suck majorly for students. Columbia’s one line message just ticks me off and comes off as half-assed. I’m not looking for sympathy, but please put some more thought into these alerts.

Google NYU weather alert and tada first hit is that NYU is still going to be open despite the major snowstorm. Google Columbia University weather alert and you get an alert from February 12 2006 (where, they let you know that despite the fact it’s one of the worst snowstorms in the history of NYC students still have class). So when’s the last time Columbia has closed for snow? According to the website, February 17, 2003, when it snowed about 20 inches. Okay so maybe we’ve got a little bit more to go, but I’m sure if you make the powers that be go outside to get to class they’d cancel in an instant. Bastards.

Update 1:15PM
So as I was walking through IAB today, I slipped and fell down the stairs, injuring my wrist and reopening scrapes on my knees I had from dancing, which required me to go back to my dorm, bandage my knees AGAIN, change, and then arrive to class 15 minutes late. -__-;;

I admit, I haven’t been posting on the blog much lately (certainly not 5 times a week!), and yes, much of that is because I can easily condense my sentiments into 140 character tweets. (Maybe I resort to crude internet language at times…)

But yeah, I won’t concede to the degrading of this kind of lengthy stuff!

Anyway, onto my reading, updates of which can be seen here. (Note to self: Insert hyperlinks at appropriate places.)

1. I should probably start from the beginning, when I cheated a bit with LotR (but really! I had to get some credit for finished those some 300-odd pages, in small font!) If I thought Fellowship had great use of language and the fantasy world, I don’t even know how to describe Two Towers. It really got to me in Book IV with Gollum, and his pitiable, redeemable state, and how Frodo treated him contrasted with Sam (Also, now I can’t help but seeing a slight Frodo/Sam thing). I might have even liked book IV better than III, despite the action and fighting and Aragorn and Treebeard in the latter.
2. In December I really started to noticed John Green (and Hank, of course!) as a vlogger, writer, and person. I started with Katherines, then got Paper Towns around Christmas, and bought Let It Snow when I noticed it at a Borders in Kansas City. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I started reading it and grew to appreciate all three authors’ great writing. I really liked Maureen’s story when reading it, but I think John’s is my favorite. As it always seems to be with this Young Adult genre, the stories reminded me about people, who are humans, and how deep and complex everyone’s life is. Sure, they spoke of loads of other things, but this stuck out throughout the book. Also, the three stories really blended in together well (and I don’t mean just the ending…)
3. I saw all of the vlogbrothers’ videos in late December, so when John mentioned M.T. Anderson, I eventually realised he was the crazy urban exploring guy. Octavian Nothing was definitely a great book. I once asked if “a book [is] better if you can’t put it down, or if you just want to put it down and not go through with it?” I think this was during Alaska, but it really applies to this as well. It really explored the characteristics of humans as dangerous and often immoral and dehumanized (ironic much?) as a result of society and other elements. It focuses most blatantly on the prejudiced misjudgement and inequality African slaves suffered during much of America’s history, but in general it questions the way people think and act, and challenge’s our perception of history in general. Most frightening of all, the events and behaviors exhibited in the book don’t really seem too unreal, and can relate too much to modern society.
4. Sure, I’ve always read Harry Potter fairly deeply, but in recent months I seem to have undergone some kind of intellectual metapmorphosis. Now I seem to always crave knowledge (not in the crazy, dehumanized way), and think far more critically than I used to. So far I haven’t read the series critically (although I have read some pages with new eyes), so I was even more excited to be reading Harry Potter and Imagination, by Travis Prinzi. But even without my neglect of critical reading, I know that this book takes a deep and true look at Potter. The Færie, the characters, the politics, all tie in to most of the themes of the books, and do a great job evaluating Potter with respect to the power of the imagination (no, not Respect^i or Potter*dx^i, all you math nerds!) But yes, this was a really good book, and I can’t even touch on all the other points in which it is a well thought-out and analytical look at books with deeper meanings that are complex yet easy to relate to. I might do a whole post (and maybe an Amazon review or something) on the subjext one fine day when I don’t have a Chemistry tests to study for.

So there it is; now I have to go off and do stuff and study for AP Chemistry. It took a lot of energy out of me to write these brief assessments of 4 books, and I might edit in a fifth just to make it look neat later; but I think I’ll stick to 5 books at a time. So expect around 10 semi-monthly installements of Arka’s book review thingies! And if you want to see what I can’t write ≈ 700 words about, check out my Twitter.

Each year, the biggest and most extravagant scupltures from artists from all over the world (usually Japan) line Main Street

Plymouth, Michigan is home to North America’s oldest and largest ice carving festival. For those readers local enough to go and check it out, the festival is going on this weekend. I was in town with my mom, my little sister, and my friend Kelsey, so we decided to go and check it out. Unfortunately, it was freezing cold and none of us had much winter clothes (which is especially bad for my 7-yr sis). So we only walked a quick circle around Kellogg Park. We go every year, usually late at night when the crowd is thin and all the sculptures are lit up with colored lights. I got a few pictures last night, but Im hoping to go again. The festival continues into tomorrow, but the sculptures are usually left up for at least a few days (usually).  So if you can, check out the Plymouth International Ice Spectacular!