Castaneda Familia: So worth the drive and worth freezing your butt off!!!

OMG!! This place was one of the most amazing places that I have been to in a very long time! A good friend of mine had told me about this house that decorated their home beautifully in memory of his wife and daughter...so we decided to drive by on Friday night to see it. I have never seen so many Christmas lights on one house before. Then...yesterday we find out that you can get out of your car and walk around their yard to look at all the decorations and you can also write a message to a loved one who has passed away! So we invited Momma Yo (my mother-n-law) over for dinner and we all went back to this wonderful place. We had told her about it but she must have not been listening to us when we told her yesterday because tonight when we got there she didn't know why we were there. Grandma GG (Momma Yo's mother) passed away 8 months ago so we thought it would be nice to go write a message to Grandma GG as this is our 1st Christmas without her :( When we walked up to the house we were greeted with Hot Apple Cider by the homeowners daughter. She told us about the tradition which was started for her sister that had passed away many years ago, and now it is also in honor of her mother whom had passed away only 2 years ago. Her father begins decorating the house on October 1st! They go to Apple Hill and find the biggest tree they can find and put over 13,000 lights on it. On top of the tree is a big beautiful angel, which they call their Mother's tree. They had a fire pit going and marshmellows to roast...it was absolutely one of the most touching and beautiful places to visit!! It truly touched me and it is so remarkable to me that these people open their home to complete strangers to share their love for their loved ones. It made my Christmas season even better!! I already had such a great week with my favorite student loving me more than Santa and then I was able to go see this awesome place. We had a wonderful family night and we all got to write messages to our loved ones who are now in heaven. They also let us know that the ornaments that we made would be put out every year from here on out! I can't wait to go back next year...I just hope it's not raining next time! Here are some pictures...if you live in Elk Grove or near you should definatly go to this place!! It's off of Point Pleasant, you can email me if you would like specific directions.