Christmas Begins!

We've been busy getting into the Christmas spirit. I'm bound and determined to drag my bah-humbug family into the Christmas season by whatever means necessary. This week, that meant going to the Garden d'Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens. We wandered through an amazing display of plant and animal life made 100% from lights. Dan and Kendra were both suitably impressed.

On Friday we headed downtown to watch the Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Contest. It's a fundraiser for the Pike Place Senior Center, Preschool and Medical Clinic. Thousands of people clog the closed off streets to listen to dozens of groups caroling. Some were amazing singers, some were average, one group played a recording of Christmas music and tap danced to it, another looked like a couple of drunken frat boys decided at the last minute to sing - but they all looked like they were having fun. We'll definitely go again next year to check it out - with a better plan for parking! (We hadn't considered the fact that THOUSANDS of people would be there and streets would be closed.) The whole city decks itself out for the holidays, and this event helps kick off the spirit of the season.

After the caroling we headed to a co-worker of Dan's for his annual drunken bash aka Christmas Party. Since Kendra was with us we knew we wouldn't be staying long. However, she was in fine form - smiling and charming everyone she could see. She once again was the hit of the party. We stayed longer than we anticipated and all three of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.