Yultide

CHRISTMAS DAY:  Another Christmas come and gone. We spent part of the day ocean side. It's always great to see the powerful Pacific Ocean.

Yesterday was one of those four-seasons-in-five-minutes type of weather days. When we arrived at the beach, a beautiful rainbow was arcing overhead.

But as you can see here, there were also some rather menacing looking storm clouds in the area.

The walkway down to the beach at Don Davis Memorial Park includes several memorials to the Vietnam War.

Down by the beach, we stopped to check out some super interesting rock formations. 

 We were wishing Uncle Jim the geologist was along, so we'd have a better idea of what we were looking at.

There was an interesting assortment of people on the beach, including a woman with a bag of bread, surrounded by seagulls, and a woman sitting on a blanket, drinking a bottle of champagne, while her Chihuahua barked incessantly at everyone/thing.

The kids used the wide open space to get some Nerf war action in. 

And, of course, we stopped to contemplate the crashing waves.

The kids were happy that Santa found them, despite them being hundreds of miles from home. 

Of course, how could he miss this glorious tree?!

So pretty!

Happy faces on Christmas morning. Merry, merry, everyone!

Christmas Eve!

SANTA'S COMING TONIGHT: Here it is, another Christmas Eve. The year 2014 is winding down, and Santa is on his globe trotting circuit. The kids ate their last chocolate from their IKEA advent calendars today. 

We've been making our way over the rivers and to the woods for a couple of days now. Last night, we stopped in Wilsonville, where we enjoyed a dinner with family at the Wilsonville McMenamins, a neat space in a converted old church. 

Today, it was back on the road again, south and west, toward the Oregon Coast. Along the way we stopped at another McMenamins, this time, in Corvallis (home of the Oregon State University). 

This McMenamins had kind of an English countryside pub look and feel. (In case you're wondering why all the McMenamins stops, we're trying to collect stamps in our McMenamins' passports, earning prizes along the way.)

Annabelle looked the same in both of the McMenamins we visited. ;)

Tonight before bedtime, we checked in with the Santa trackers at NORAD. Santa had already delivered 5.5 billion presents and was working his way westward. He'd already been to the nation's capital! http://youtu.be/SnS5klLapKQ

Season's Greetings

MERRY MAKING:  This weekend was all about some last minute shopping, and taking part in some holiday traditions we've come to enjoy in Seattle.

One must was a visit to Swanson's Nursery. We've been going there for years now to see their live reindeer and Curly the camel.

The reindeer we up and active, unlike some of our visits in years past. 

And Curly looked to be hungry, munching the entire time we stood watching.

We couldn't help but notice the guy could use a good dentist.

We also checked out Swanson's miniature railroad display. It was cute, as always.

We all loved Godzilla's guest appearance in the scene.

Monday afternoon we headed to Seattle Center to see the coolest Santa in the galaxy, Space Needle Santa. 

We were happy that Rick and Kennedy could join us, since they are on winter break this week!  Here they all are purposely making dorky smiles for the tourist camera before you board the elevator to the Observation Deck.

Once up there, we were surprised to find Santa was on a 'hot chocolate break.' 

So, we killed some time looking around,  We looked at factoid-filled displays inside ... 

and, of course, we made a couple of loops outside.

It was a hazy kind of day, but it was pretty, in kind of an eerie way. And it was so mild! Not a wisp of wind, and warm enough that none of us were wearing coats.

Annabelle and CJ each used telescopes to survey some sights.

Here's what EMP (Experience Music Project) looks like from on high.

Santa eventually appeared on the scene, and the kids enjoyed their visit with him.

Tonight, we celebrated an early Christmas with the big boys, G&G and a family friend and tomorrow, we take our show on the road. 

MEANWHILE, AT NORAD: If you haven't already, you should check out the latest goings on at North American Aerospace Defense Command, where this time of year, they are very busy tracking all the goings on at the North Pole and all things Santa.

Their Web site, http://www.noradsanta.org, has games, movies, music, a library, and more to peruse. 

And here's a nice story from NPR about how NORAD got into the Santa tracking business to begin with - a typo and a good sport!: http://www.npr.org/2014/12/19/371647099/norads-santa-tracker-began-with-a-typo-and-a-good-sport