Holiday Happenings

As usual, there are always so many exciting things to do around town this time of year...and it all goes by at the speed of light. So I'm simply submitting a photo tour of our holiday happenings. Weee!

Santa Finn. Ho, ho, ho!

Elf Finn

We spent a day at the Seattle Center, checking out the Winter Trains exhibit, Children's Museum and story time with Santa, and the ice skating rink (no we did not attempt it this year). Unfortunately, we didn't get but a handful of photos that day. We were simply having too much fun to remember!

Artist Finn, painting at the museum.

On a whim, we stopped at a park for some quick Christmas shots. Considering that we were well past lunch time and an hour into Finn's nap time, the whole ordeal went quite smoothly. Never mind the fact we had to bribe Koen a bit. His smiles were the simple result of telling him that if he cooperated for photos, he could later play 'light saber' with the stick he'd found on the grass.

Behold, the light saber

Peek-a-boo!

It wouldn't be Christmas without a Greenleaf cookie decorating event....

complete with a 'special' cookie. :)

Of course, we had to pay a visit to Dasher and Blitzen, as we do each year.

This year we finally made it to the Teddy Bear Suite at the Fairmont Hotel.

It was over the top teddy bears in all directions!

This was our favorite entry at the annual tour of gingerbread houses. If you look closely, you'll notice a certain high flying spaceman, also known as Buzz Lightyear. :)

Later, we tried our hand at our own gingerbread village. Alas, it ended up looking more like a remote town pummeled by a frosting and coconut landslide, followed by a candy explosion.

The boys loved the holiday carousel downtown. And you know, it's all about choosing the coolest looking horse. Koen chose the large black one with blue highlights in his mane.

We made it to the light display at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. Finn had one thing to say, all the way through the exhibit..."Yie!" (Lights!). Unfortunately, only one of our 'night' photos turned out to be anything recognizable! But, here is the proof.

And lastly, here we are getting ourselves psyched up to sit on Santa's lap. Clay and I were bracing for the annual Santa tantrum and quick rescue.

Remember last year?

And the time before that? (

We flat out skipped 2008...

Koen was adamantly opposed, and we had no interest in pushing it.)

But we were pleasantly surprised....make that utterly shocked...when the whole ordeal passed without issue this time. Finn was only slightly wary. He and Santa sized each other up, and then it was all good.

To make the event more miraculous, Koen even talked to Santa! He told him he would like a Buzz Lightyear toy (much to my chagrin).