Friday, December 25, 2015

Our 2015 Christmas Eve Adventures

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Well, 2015 is coming to a close, but it can’t end without our usual Christmas week fun and games. Since Evie was born, we haven’t missed out on our little tradition once. It all starts with a trip to Build-A-Bear to get the latest addition to Evie’s family of BAB’s, then we head off to a nice lunch before catching a movie and heading home. Once in a while we throw in some changes to the plan, which is exactly what happened this year.

Our day started with a trip over to Alderwood Mall. We were going to start with the “forced Santa photo” until they told us that they only sold packages starting from $35. We really just wanted on photo for Evie’s album, but that wasn’t going to happen. We decided to blow that off after Evie said she didn’t even want to do it anyways. So off to Build-A-Bear we went.

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Evie picked out a pink ‘rockstar’ rabbit for this year’s choice. The rabbit was named Risa, but Evie decided that Kellie fit it better and that was that. She went through the usual filling and stuffing ceremony, brushed her out and created her birth certificate. All in all, it was a good trip in and out as usual.

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From there, we hit the Nordstrom’s Cafe for lunch, which was simply amazing. From the crab bisque to the hummus, the food was stunning. Great flavors, great service and the perfect stop for us. Even Evie at all her lunch!

After we finished off lunch, we checked on movie times only to have Evie protest again. Then Ara came up with the idea to hit Snowflake lane, since it was the last night for the celebration. We did a quick stop at Target to grab Evie a sweatshirt and headed south to Bellevue Square.

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Snowflake Lane was once again perfect. Though the organizers could have done a much better job at telling people where they could and couldn’t go. We arrived almost a full hour ahead of the parade and got a spot right at the front of the fencing. It was perfect, right next to a drummer with a full view of the street, or so we thought. As the parade time neared, they opened up the street for people to stand in one lane and watch the parade. That took our perfect front row seats back a few notches to say the least, but it was still incredible – and we were in the right place to get ‘snowed’ on this year!

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When we finished at Snowflake Lane, it was time to find some dinner. Of course, since we had such a late lunch and Evie actually ate it, she wasn’t hungry until 5 minutes after we left the restaurants that were still open. That didn’t phase the night one bit though as we swung into Haggens and grabbed some super tasty food to bring home to eat while they decorated Santa’s cookies. It was the perfect ending to a great day.