seattle christmasy things

Since it's almost Christmas and the only holiday-like thing I've posted was about ice skating ducks, I thought I'd show some pictures of Christmasy things we've been doing lately.

The Hybrid

On Thanksgiving weekend, Bret and I went out to Liberty Lake, Washington to visit his family there for a day of holiday merrry-making. Since we'll all be in different places for Christmas, the Miller family chose to do their traditional Christmas tree decorating and gift exchange the same night we had Thanksgiving dinner. We called it the hybrid. We were there for only a day so it was a bit of a blur of turkey, Amy Grant music and family togetherness.

Extreme Gingerbread
The next weekend, Bret's younger sister Melinda and her husband Landan came to Seattle with friends for a visit and to eat great food. So we took them to a place downtown that was showcasing some incredible holiday food, only this wasn't for eating. Every year the Sheraton Hotel hosts a Gingerbread "House" competition where architects and chefs of the city combine forces to make some magnificent displays of festive fantastic-ness. This year they chose classic holiday movies as the theme. I need to apologize real quick and say that these pictures were taken in haste and hardly do the creations justice, nevertheless, here is a selection of our favorites:

Nightmare before Christmas
Muppet Christmas Carole
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Christmas Story
"stuck...?"
The Polar Express

Intergalactic Christmas

Remember when I found that Craigslist ad for the position of space elf at the top of the Space Needle? Well this is what I'm missing out on. It's a shame I didn't follow through on that.

We also had the pleasure of having our friends the Wilsons stay with us for a couple days this week. We were grateful for the chance to spend time with them and their sweet little Olivia. More pictures with them to come.

Today I head home to Utah to spend Christmas with the fam and Bret will join us tomorrow. Can't wait to see all my Utah people!

P.S. You're probably thinking about now: "Hey, wait a second. Bret seems to be wearing that same tan zip-up in like every picture lately!" You're right, he is. He loves that thing. I promise I wash it.