December - Christmas in Seattle

Luckily it's a quick trip to Seattle which makes travelling with a baby nice and easy! When we arrived, Mel & Dave were already there and we started our celebrations with the botanical gardens. 

Christmas Sunday

watching TV with Dad & Grandpa

Our glorious gingerbread house! Brodie created the marshmallow igloo masterpiece

Christmas morning on the lake

Briggen wasn't exactly sure what was going on. He did love all of the shiny wrapping paper though! And every toy elicited the same reaction . . . "I think I'll eat it!"

I tried to get a smiling picture of him by the tree, and this what I got. . . 

. . . and one with cousin Charlie

 Other fun over the holidays included a night out at 5th Avenue to see Annie (thank you for watching the kids, Mom and Dad!), arcade games, outdoor go karts, and playing in the snow at the cabin!

I have discovered my hidden talent of arcade games

The first race was on a wet track, which was definitely tricky! After some of the water dried we were able to go faster and turn more easily. I wasn't first, but I wasn't last - so we'll count that as I win :)

Briggen was not a fan of the snow, but he tolerated it for the most part

 cute bath babies 

We were sad to head home - especially Briggen who loved being surrounded by grandparents and cousins. Another half a year and we'll be together again!

Briggen: 10 months

This was a rare occurrence where I laid Briggen on the blanket, snapped one photo, and it turned out alright! He wasn't lying still, but at least it didn't show up as a blur :)

Favorite foods: bananas, chicken, yogurt, and muffins 

What's new: "So Big", high five, blowing raspberries, drinking out of a straw, pointing at objects 

Likes: opening all drawers and cabinets, pulling DVDs off the shelf, eating paper, yelling into paper towel tubes 

Dislikes: being in the car seat at night, sitting in snow, sitting in sand

Firsts: Christmas, airplane ride trip to Hawaii, Christmas, swimming in the ocean

Briggen has been loving all types of food lately and will usually eat whatever we are eating. I am not sure how I ended up with a bib on (or how it fit around my neck), but it definitely adds to the picture! 

playing with glow sticks

his favorite activity of taking out game pieces and scattering them 

December - Christmas Season

One of my favorite months of the year! I love the Christmas festivities, time off work, and family gatherings. It made it even more fun having Briggen around to share it with us! 

We kicked off the month by baking lots of cookies to give to friends/neighbors. 

The First Friday event for December is always the Tree Lighting. We even stood in the long line to see get the free photo from Santa. Briggen didn't cry, but he was confused and slightly stunned. I was surprised when they asked if they could publish his photo for next year's advertising - he wasn't even smiling! But he looked pretty cute anyways. It was worth the free printed photo!

Tree Lighting

Briggen was very curious about the fireworks

A new event we attended this year was the Washougal Festival of Trees. We paid for the breakfast that went along with it - but it wasn't worth the money. Next year we will make our pancakes at home! The trees were amazing and made up for it though. Eah tree is decorated with a different theme and auctioned off for to raise money for charity.

Another tradition is to go to Zoo Lights at the Portland Zoo. Briggen's Great Grandma Fish joined in on the fun, which he absolutely loved.

I love these series of photos. 

Briggen loved all the lights, but he was not impressed with the tiger! 

We have had a lot of fun celebrating locally and are excited to head to Seattle soon! This year we decided not to do real tree because of the baby and because of space. So instead we have this little fake one on top of our coffee table. Next year we will hopefully be celebrating in our new house!

Christmas Tree Farm & Trans-Siberian Orchestra

On Thanksgiving weekend it's tradition to shop for a Christmas tree! Since we are spending a large portion of December in Seattle, we decided not to get a tree this year. But we didn't want to miss out on all the fun! So we went with the rest of the Fish Fam to tag along on their hunt for a tree. 

hay ride out to the tree farm

visiting the horses

love my little red-head! 

sippin' hot chocolate in the barn

After the tree hunt, we dropped off the kids at the Farm House and hired a babysitter. Then all of us went into downtown Portland for the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert. It was an early Christmas gift from Mom & Dad Fish and it was amazing! Their music was even better live than on the radio. I was glad we left Briggen at home because it was very loud, lots of laser lights, and even some fire!