EVE ACTIVITY: Poor Annabelle is ailing, and so we've tried to keep things pretty low key, but the morning of Christmas Eve we did strike out for a couple of hours of holiday fun.
Our first stop was Seattle Center, to catch a monorail ride!
We were first in line, and so CJ headed right to the front seat, next to the driver. A bit later, a little boy and his dad showed up, and the little boy started crying, even though Annabelle gave up her front row seat so he could sit there. Turns out the little boy can apparently *only* sit next to the driver.
CJ, being the kind hearted kid he is, readily switched places with him. Part of me thinks that's really nice. The other part of me thinks the little boy needs to learn he doesn't always get everything he wants. ...
We took the short ride to Westlake, downtown.
The shopping district definitely had its holiday glow about it.
But we weren't there to shop! We were there to catch a ride on the merry-go-round.
The carousel is temporarily located in a year-round plaza. The park has a permanent ping pong table! The kids gave it a go for a chilly minute or two.
From there, we walked a couple of blocks to the Sheraton, where the annual Gingerbread Village art competition is on display.
This year's theme was "May the Holidays Be With You" - better known as Star Wars!!!!
There were six separate displays, each one inspired by the first six Star Wars movies. The first one we encountered was from Episode IV, which we all know as the original Star Wars movie, from 1977.
Loved the nearly 'life' sized R2 unit, and the fondant characters on a cruiser were pretty well done, IMHO,
The "Empire Strikes Back" themed display featured a Han in 'carbonite' as its 'wow' piece. It was probably a good four feet high.
There was also a colorful, nearly ceiling-high rotating feature (that quit rotating while we were waiting in line).
And I suppose it wouldn't be an "Empire" art piece without having the infamous Jabba the Hut and Leia in a bikini scene. This feature rotated the whole time we were there. :)
The jungle planet from "Return of the Jedi" had lovely colors.
A tiny Han and Chewie scene was super cute.
Though we like to try to forget episodes 1-3 exist, they were acknowledged in gingerbread.
The Phantom Menace display had some pretty columnar buildings ...
and a big droid army.
Episode 2, "Attack of the Clones" had a marvelous likeness of actor Ewan McGregor
Up top Count Dooku duked it out, and underneath, there was a cute little scene with Yoda.
Episode 3's display had a space-y looking globe.
Here are a few bonus shots from the scenes.
Loved these AT-ATs!
But we thought Luke's legs looked a little wonky on this one.
The ice planet Hoth looked pretty cool in more ways than one!
There were Jawas, of course!
There was a little pod racing action.
We loved the Bith from the Cantina scene!
After the sweet show, we caught the monorail back to Seattle Center and checked out the model railroad display in the Center House (or the Armory, as it's now called).
Love the attention to detail in their little city.
Later, back home, we gathered 'round the telly to start a terrible holiday tradition ...
We found a copy of it on YouTube (there are many) and Chromecast it to the big screen ... and then sat back and recoiled in horror.
That's probably an understatement. Star Wars creator George Lucas had minimal involvement in the production (his name does not appear in the credits). Of it, he reportedly said, "If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that show and smash it."
TWENTY FIFTH: Santa came to our place overnight, much to the delight of CJ and Annabelle.
CJ was happy to have a new nutcracker for his burgeoning collection!
And the kids were pretty surprised to see a Book of Mormon under the tree ... until they realized it contained tickets to see the show at the Paramount in a week or so.
All in all a quiet, pleasant Christmas day with the biggest 'excitement' being a game of Batman Fluxx this afternoon.
Hopefully Annabelle is feeling much better before long.
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