Christmas Eve Eve

We had plans this evening to drive into Bellevue with Mel & James to have dinner out and watch Snowflake Lane, but then it started snowing....and it didn't stop. Peter and James had no desire to go anywhere far in the weather, so we tweaked our plans and stayed local. We went out to dinner at Red Robin, then headed back to our place to hang out for a few hours.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow

 Dinner at Red Robin

Getting Excited for Christmas!

We're getting excited as it gets closer to Christmas! Peter wanted to give goodie platters to the different departments at his work, so I spent the last two days baking up a storm. In all, there were 2 different types of fudge, homemade marshmallows, cinnamon-sugared pecans, oreo truffles, and 5 different types of cookies. Needless to say, I was exhausted at the end of it all. The morning Peter took the goodies in, it took me 45 minutes to platter it all up!

 After all the baking was done and the kitchen was cleaned up, I had a small amount of energy left and decided to finally put the gifts under the tree. The boys had been downstairs playing when I did this, but Kristjan happened to come up just as I had finished. He exclaimed in excitement!

It's Done!

Well, it only took us 3 months, but our bedroom is finally done...for the most part. Peter was in charge of texturing the walls while I said I would paint. Due to being busy at work (and unmotivated at times), it took Peter a few weeks (or maybe it was a month?) to texture the walls and ceiling. Once he was done, I slapped on a few coats of paint. Once the room was cleaned up, I moved everything back in. Oh how nice it was to have our room back in order! We still need to change out some of the outlets and add trim, but otherwise the room is good enough for now. 

 Peter texturing random spots he missed

 In the beginning I was hoping to paint our room in a light grey color, but Peter said I would still have to paint the ceiling white, which would mean I'd have to deal with putting up painters tape. No Thank You! By the end I just wanted the whole thing done and over with, so we went with a white room.

 Peter installing the new closet system. This is what caused the project to begin.....at least it looks good and is way better than what was originally in there. 

Holiday Hooray!

Our friend Mel was given tickets for her birthday to the Holiday Hooray! featuring Let Your Music Shine with Lisa and Linda at Benaroya Hall in Seattle. Unfortunately, her husband James couldn't come (it was the weekend they could start moving into their new place), so Mel asked me to tag along and help with the girls. It was fun to go. The show was part of a tiny tots series, so the audience was full of parents and kids under seven years old. It was only an hour long (to keep the little ones interested). After the show, we had some time to spare before our parking time was up, so we thought we'd walk a couple blocks to the Sheraton Hotel to view the Gingerbread Village (this years theme is Harry Potter). We get there, but didn't realize you had to stand in a long line that was slower than molasses to look at the gingerbread creations. We decided this wasn't feasible with two little toddlers. So we walked in the opposite direction of the roped-off line to get quick glances and snap pics between people. Good enough! We picked up a quick lunch on our way back to the car and then headed home.

Snow Day!

We got a little bit of snow. School was canceled, much to the boys' delight! They spent the morning playing outside.

Gingerbread House Competition

Our little family split into teams to see who could make the most creative gingerbread house. Peter and Clifford think they won because they added a little gore to theirs, while Kristjan and I definitely think ours is the winner with all the colorful candy we added. 

The gingerbread man seemed to have a little accident involving his gingerbread wife!

Which do you prefer?!

Zoo Lights

This last Saturday we tagged along with Erik and his boys to Woodland Park Zoo's WildLights. This was another activity that we hadn't been to for a couple of years, plus Erik was able to get us in for free, so we decided to get out for some family fun. We walked around looking at the light displays. All the boys wanted to go inside the kids play area for the snow ball fight that they do, so we spent a chunk of time in there. Everyone was starting to get hungry so we cut the light tour short and headed over to Dicks for some burgers before parting ways for the evening.