Thanksgiving Point for the holidays {GIVEAWAY}

There’s no place like home for the holidays.
There’s no place like home for the holidays.
There’s no place like home for the holidays.

Okay, maybe those aren’t Dorothy’s exact words but the would be if she lived in Utah. Why? Because every holiday season, Thanksgiving Point pulls out all its bells and whistles (and lights) and displays enough holiday spirit for the entire state of Utah.

Did you know Thanksgiving Point spends about 11 months out of 12 planning/buying/organizing/ decorating for the Christmas season? I had no idea until I, along with a group of other Utah bloggers,were enlightened during a recent evening spent inside the Emporium. I think it’s exhausting spending a full day decorating and maybe a day or two buying; I can only imagine doing it pretty much year round! But I am really glad they do take that time because the Emporium looked simply fabulous!

Soon after we arrived we were treated to a sampling of a couple items from Harvest Restaurant.

We’re talking shrimp tacos and butternut squash soup. (How adorable are those mini bread bowls? I’m thinking of picking up a few for Christmas Eve!)

…
And then we got our hands a little dirty and learned how to put together a super cute, super simple neighbor gift. It was so non-crafter-friendly even mine turned out cute! Of course it wasn’t as cute as these lovely bloggers:

Michelle from A Little Tipsy

… Camille from Make It Work Mom and Kalli (plus Triple F) from My Life as a Kalli

… Jill from Jill Can Blog

… Sharon (left) from Sharon Johnson Photography;
Kim (right) from Simply Me & Kim Orlandini Photography

After browsing the Emporium wondering how many spools of ribbon one cabinet can hold…

and just which peppered jelly to buy Lindsey…

and how many swatches of fabric it takes to screw in a light bulb (just one to cover your hand if the light bulb is hot)…

we were led on a tour of the Emporium’s magnificent—in size and shelves upon shelves of treasures—basement. I’m talking treasures like these sweet little Christmas boxes:

And of course the ever important Pucker Powder:

My favorite basement goodie was this shabby chic table. (I’m guessing it’s shabby chic; I’m clueless and it sounds good.)

*SIGH* I love turquoise!

After our tour we headed outside to catch the trolley so we could make our way through the thousands upon thousands of Christmas lights in Thanksgiving Point’s Electric Park. This year they even have a fantastic grouping of evolving ice sculptures by local artist Andrew Smith. They were seriously (and literally) cool!

But perhaps the best of all was attending the evening with my special guest, my mom. Love you, Mom!

It wouldn’t be the holidays without quality family time now, would it?

And now I am giving you your very own chance to spend LOTS and LOTS of quality time (12 months to be exact) with your family. You can thank me (or TP my house) later. Yes, you just might win a Thanksgiving Point Annual Family Pass! But hold the “woo hoo” until after I tell you what this pass includes:

• Free admission to Thanksgiving Point Gardens, Museum of Ancient Life and Farm Country
• 10% Discount on Rrtail (remember those cute Christmas boxes?) & food (remember those yummy shrimp tacos?) property-wide
• Monthly Thanksgiving Point Gazette
• Personalized membership card
• 50% off admissions for accompanied guests (think stress-free get-together with the in-laws)
• Early admission to Thanksgiving Point Gardens (beat the summer heat!)
• Mammoth Screen movies at $5 per person/per movie (get your big screen on!)

And now for the big WOO HOO, baby!

For your chance to win the Thanksgiving Point Annual Family Pass ($175 value) giveaway, leave a comment telling me what—other than “woo hoo”—you’ll exclaim if you win. It’s that simple.

In that same comment, feel free to tell me your favorite Thanksgiving Point activity. (It won’t earn you an extra entry but it will earn you warm fuzzies.) Mine is the Emporium Kitchen’s culinary classes, or it will be as soon as I use the gift card my mom gave me last Christmas.

For extra entries you can do any/all of the following. Please leave a separate comment for each one you do (each one earns you an extra entry).

~ “Like” Thanksgiving Point on Facebook.

~ “Like” ITRML on Facebook (or tell me you already do).

~ Follow ITRML on Google Friend Connect (sidebar).

~ Subscribe to ITRML (or tell me you already have).

~ Tweet about this giveaway using @ThanksPoint somewhere in there and leave the URL of your tweet.

~ Update your Facebook status with a link to this giveaway.

This giveaway will end at midnight on Thursday, December 16th. Good luck!

* Disclaimer: I was invited to a blogger event at Thanksgiving Point and given a family pass for personal use in exchange for writing about my experience. I’m really glad they gave me a family pass to give away as well because that’s super nice. And super nice is super cool. And super cool is the sand and water hands-on play area inside the Museum of Ancient Life. And I could go on and on about other super cool things at Thanksgiving Point but I will let you discover the rest of them yourself.

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