ZooLights!

just a few photos taken last weekend, at my company's Christmas party which was held at the Phoenix zoo... every year the zoo puts on a display containing what had to be millions of lights... neither of us have been to this event before, or even the zoo (why not, right?!? I know... we definitely need to go back during the day, when we can see the animals) so it was pretty neat (and overwhelming!) to see. I do not know how to work my camera well enough to get good pictures of something like this, but here's a few that turned out fairly decent:

I actually attempted to take this so it would be in focus,
but I quite like the blurry effect of all the multicolored lights. 

Our party was really nice (if a bit chilly); it was a whole-family affair, so people brought their significant others, along with their kids and/or their grandkids. We had a (heated) tent reserved right next to the lake, which played a synchronized music and light show periodically; there was a catered buffet dinner, an open bar, a gift exchange and raffle, and Santa (with presents) for the children in attendance.

this row of lighted trees reminded me somewhat of the
bioluminescent plants in the movie Avatar.

Tom and I took a bit of a stroll around some of the grounds, but we didn't go very far because it was crowded, and we didn't want to miss the gift exchange if we got trapped by the crowds on the other side of the lake.

Great Horned owl, close-up (this was done with the zoom
on my camera...we couldn't get up this close to her.) 

They had also arranged for a zookeeper to bring a couple animals to show the kids, which was pretty neat! (The poor zookeeper, though: the first animal she had was a lizard, and apparently all the kids wanted to ask her about was lions, lol!)

a rainbow of lights

All in all, it was a really fun night! The place was packed with people, and now that we've seen (some of) it, we know why. We'll definitely be making plans to go back and see the rest of it!