Christmas Adventures in Seattle

Call us crazy or call us adventurous (I lean toward the crazy)- my friend Gena and I took our kids to the city today to take part in some of the holiday festivities that are happening.

We have matching B.O.B. strollers- that's how we roll! (However, I did notice that Gena's stroller was clean while mine is littered with stale Cheerios.)

Wyatt (hiding), Olivia, Lucy, and Max

We began our adventure at The Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton Hotel.  The gingerbread houses were impressive and fun to see, and this one was our favorite-



A gingerbread tree house!  I want to live there!

Next, we stopped for some holiday cheer at Starbucks (in the form of caffeine and sugar), and then we rode the Holiday Carousel, which was the happiest 60 seconds of the kids' day, for sure.

Gena and her kids headed home for lunch and naps, but my brilliant self thought it was a perfect time for Lucy and Max to meet Santa at Nordstrom.  After all, Nordstrom's Santa is a pretty classy guy with a swanky corner-window display, and 'tis the season, right??

Poor Maxy.  He was pretty uneasy as we waited.  He kept his eyes on the big guy in the red suit...

And once it was our turn, Lucy turned shy and didn't really speak to Santa, and Max SCREAMED and held on to me for his dear little life.  I kinda felt like a bad mom, torturing my child and all.  But I kinda wanted to get a photo out of this experience, even if one child was happy and the other child was traumatized.  So that is what we did.  I handed my frightened baby over to the jolly stranger.  I'll be sure to share the photo once it arrives in the mail.  Poor, poor Max.  Fortunately a candy cane cheered him up pretty quick.

Back on the street, I spotted Seattle's resident Hall of Fame quarterback, Warren Moon.  He was ringing a Salvation Army bell and gave me a smile.

And I also got to catch up with the NFL's most handsome coach, Pete Carroll, and I asked a stranger to snap a pic for me. 

And by now we'd had enough fun for the day, so we loaded up and went back home to greet Joe when he returned from school.

Notable facts:

• Parking downtown was $11
• The front tire of my stroller is flat.  Super flat.
• A homeless man told me, "Your girl is too big for your stroller."
• As we were manically getting ready to leave the house this morning, Lucy announced, "Oh, mom, I realized that I don't love you."  I asked, "When did you realize this, Lucy?"  She answered, "This morning, while you were on the phone with daddy because you were upset with Joe, and then you yelled at Max because he dumped the (clean and folded) laundry out of the basket, and then you pulled a towel away from me, and you were mean...."  Mother-of-the-Year, here, folks!
• Lucy has a chocolate advent calendar, but she and I have resigned to just eating the chocolate at will rather than one each day.
• If you ask Max if he liked meeting Santa, who he calls "Doh-da", he says "Yeah!"
• This afternoon I sat beside Joe and helped him through his homework for a painful 2+ hours, with Max and Lucy both sitting on my lap the whole time, and for this I am confident that some bling was added to my crown in heaven.
• "The Sing Off" began last night, and I've been waiting a whole year for this show to return!  We completely enjoy it.
• Our Christmas tree has fallen down three times, breaking several ornaments each time.  I'm ready to pack it up and say, "Better luck next year!"
• Bah Humbug!