A Quick Trip to Philly

After Christmas we decided to take a last minute trip to Philadelphia to see Jill's family.  We visited downtown Philadelphia, the Comcast and Wannamaker light shows, the Dickens' Christmas Carol exhibit, the Morris Arboretum and of course lots of family.  Here are a bunch of pictures from our visit.

Christmas Morning

Well here we are Christmas morning, super excited to be downstairs unwrapping all of Santa's presents.  We've apparently got two very good kids in the house.  I made the monkey bread this year and it tasted pretty darn good!

Christmas Eve

Wanted to show you all a few pictures from Christmas Eve.  Here they are in their fancy outfits and Christmas pj's.

Checking out the drummers

Each December a mall near us lines the streets with lights and a drum line that performs and dances to holiday music.  It's always crowded but we like to check it out each year.  Evan thought it was "too loud" but that was after he was given a lollipop by one of the drummers.  I think he just wanted to get out of the crowd and eat it.  Alexis enjoyed it and her eyes were fixed on the loud drums being pounded.  It even snowed bubbles which both kids loved.

Breakfast with Santa

When Alexis was just a few weeks old we did this same breakfast last year.  It was a hit so we decided to do it again.  It wasn't just a hit because Evan got to dine with Santa but because he got to decorate waffels and french toast with whipped cream and M&Ms.  Here he is with his creation, along with a rare full-family-with-Santa photo.

Decorating the tree

This was the first year Evan actually helped us decorate the Christmas tree.  Jill and I figured it'd be 50-50 whether he'd help at all, but he stuck around for a long time and kept hanging ornaments.  The only issue was that he decided to hang every ornament off the same tree branch.  I think we wound up with something like 7 ornaments on one branch before he decided to go to a different part of the tree.  Surprisingly, Alexis didn't want to touch / grab / tackle the tree.  She just loved looking at it and all the shiny balls and lights.  I think our result this year was one great looking tree.

All Dressed Up

Evan and Alexis got all dressed up for the Symphony and I thought I'd share this cute picture of the two of them before we left:

Holiday Lights

For the past few years we've been going to the Bellevue botanical gardens with our friends the Goldrings to take in the lights.  Here are the girls all bundled up on our chilly evening and the boys acting silly on the bench.  There was a gigantic light up peacock that Evan thought was amazing - I tried to take a picture but it didn't come out too well.  I'm still working on my night photography skills.

Counting down to Christmas

Ever since I can remember Evan has had this advent calendar that Aunt Jennifer made for him.  Each morning before breakfast he goes downstairs, pulls out a tree decoration and sticks it on.  Then he counts down the days remaining until Christmas.  Here he is one morning just after counting:

Reindeer in Seattle

There's a nursery just north of our house that has reindeer and a camel each December (along with trains and other fun stuff).  We took Alexis and Evan up to see the animals and they seemed to like it.  The camel's name is Curley and he's on billboards all around the city.  Whenever Evan sees it he yells "There's Curley!  What's that camel doing up on that sign?".

Christmas festivities

Today we did all our major Christmas activities.  Our first stop was at the Nordstrom Santa.  Usually there's a multi hour long line but we got there real early and got to see the big man in just a few minutes.  Evan was very excited.  He had written a list and had been reading it before bed for at least a week.  He told Santa what he wanted.  It was real cute.  Alexis, on the other hand, was not amused at a big, strange man in a red suit.

Here's Evan with some one-on-one time with Santa.

Next we headed over to a hotel that hosts a bunch of ginger bread houses in its lobby for charity.  Local architecture firms contribute and they're always stunning.  We got someone to snap a few rare all-family picture for us.

On the way out, Alexis decided she wanted to walk a bit with Jill.  Here they are heading down the hall.

Next we went to another hotel that has a fantastically decorated lobby and a teddy bear suite.  Here are Evan and Alexis making themselves at home under one of the trees.

They were auctioning off pre-decorated trees in the lobby.  Here's Evan, Alexis and Jill by one of them.

On to the main attraction - the bears.  The hotel decorates a suite all Christmas-y and puts in tons and tons of bears.  Here's Evan with the big bear.

After Alexis saw him there she needed a turn too.

And so did Jill.  Evan brought over a book and they read while Alexis crawled around fuzzing all the different smaller bears.

We headed to one last hotel to take a look at more trees for auction.  They also had a bunch of crafts for Evan to do.  Here he is making his Rudolph candy cane.

And here he is with his finished products.

We covered a lot today but we weren't rushed at all and had a fantastic time.  The holidays are officially here.

Evan's new symphony gear

We all know Evan loves the symphony.  One day he was doing a show for me and ran out of the room with his microphone (this does happen from time to time).  About five minutes later when he was not back I asked him where he was.  He came in with tape all over his microphone.  I asked him what he was doing and he said he was trying to tape it to his head like the symphony ladies.  They wore those small headset microphones and he wanted one.  After some thinking we came up with a solution.  A straw and some tape was all it took. This is one happy symphony boy.

Alexis at Gymboree

We recently started taking Alexis to Gymboree classes.  She loves it.  She climbs up, down, and all around.  She loves the slide and all the mat ramps.  She even follows directions and sits on your lap for singing time (most of the time).  It's so fun to see her engaged with an activity!