More of our Christmas in the city.....

After the visit to the Olympic Hotel, we visited the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel to see the annual Gingerbread house display. Every year architects and bakers in the Seattle area get together and create these Gingerbread extravaganzas. They always have a theme. One year it was NYC, so there was a Brooklyn bridge, a Statue of Liberty, a Empire State bldg. etc. etc. Another year it was Superheros. So you saw Superman, Spiderman, etc. This year the theme was home away from home. The two here are a houseboat and a spectacular tree house. This is also free. They ask for a donation for Juvenile Diabetes. Candy canes are given out here as well.

Then to Pacific Place to watch it snow. It snows inside the mall every evening at 6pm. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the kids are lovin' it! We do too.

Our annual trip downtown for Christmas

Every year we go downtown to take in the Christmas lights and festivities. We took the bus into the city and started with the Olympic Hotel's Teddy Bear suite. We've heard about this for years and finally decided to take a look. It's a suite all decorated for Christmas and just full of Teddy Bears, all shapes and sizes. There are couchs, beds, chairs and the floor where you can sit with your child and read stories about bears. The books are put there by the Seattle public library, admission is free, but they ask for a donation. I believe the money goes to Children's Hospital. You even get a candy cane when you leave. The lobby at the Olympic is always very lovely. Many trees, all for sale and the proceeds go to a variety of different causes.

Dinner guests

Last Friday Dave and I had some neighbors over for dinner. Here are a couple of pictures of us waiting for their arrival. Nice evening.

Dad's day in the mountains.

Dave and a coupe of his friends went up to the mountains and tried out their snow shoes for the first time this year. He brought back these photos which are some of the best he has ever taken. White snow, blue sky, wow! This is Dave in his element.

Dad

Peter and David

Last Saturday evening, Terri had a 50th anniversary party for her mom and dad. People we loving call UK and AK. We took several pictures, but many of them are out of focus. These three were pretty good. So here they are, starting with a couple of cousins!

Jolene and her Mother-in-Law!

The Honorees

Daves, trip east

Dave went to Elizabeth, NJ to visit a very dear of his. His home is just a quick train ride to Manhattan, so they went into the city. Here are a couple of photos of the Christmas decorations, as well as folks skating at Rockefeller Center. He said everything was beautiful, but it was very cold.

This is Dave's friend, Ed. They went to a fire museum in Elizabeth. Ed's father was the fire chief in Elizabeth. They discovered a photo with his dad in it and feel this is a truck he probably rode in to fires. It has been beautifully restored.

The Big Apple from across the river at Hoboken, New Jersey

The planting of Hazel's tree

My next door neighbor's sister passed away this past year and she purchased a tree for Providence Point in her honor. It was planted last Friday and a few neighbors went to view the planting. It is a magnolia tree and we think it'll be quite lovely. Here are a few photos of Paulie with the tree and one with all of us that attended.

Thanksgiving

We had a great and tasty Thanksgiving at Jacquie and Paul's. Soooo much yummy food! Kaylene found much enjoyment by traveling up and down the stairs. Kept us pretty busy!

Dave abd Kaylene

Dave and Kaylene came for their weekly visit. I had some of those mini cupcakes and Kaylene thought her's was pretty tasty. She came all dressed in red, white and blue in honor of Veteran's Day.

Yummy

Just sittin' with Dad.

My goodness, what's out there?

Back to New Mexico

We really enjoyed Santa Fe and will probably visit again. I love State Capitol buildings and so we always visit them when we are in a capitol city. This one was special in that, along with the offices of the Governor, etc., it housed a wonderful art collection. The building has 3 stories and the walls are covered with wonderful Southwestern art.

We had a very nice lunch on the balcony of this restaurant. We were overlooking the town square. Great people watching, good food.

This stairway is in a lovely old church in Santa Fe. It has no visible means of support.

A couple more photos from the Holt's California visit last week.

Last Sat. night

We celebrated Dave's birthday last Saturday night. I really like this picture of Kaylene.

Someone is waiting for someone to drop something!

Callifornia visitors

Martha and Augie came for a visit last week and Zach came for a short while as well. Augie and Kaylene are busy bonding over K's shoe. We sure enjoyed having them together. The photos below are of Dad/Uncle Zach playing baby wrangler.

While in Albuquerque we visted UK's sister Karen. Had a great afternoon. We're sitting outside a little deli, owned and operated by a friend of hers. Good time.

Look at what we'e celebrating today!

Congratulations! 13 years!

Mass Ascention begins

Dawn Patrol

Albuquerque Balloon Festival

One of the reasons for visiting New Mexico was to attend the annual balloon festival. The festival lasts for a week and early every morning they launch many balloons into the air all at once. On this Sunday, they launched 600. It was quite a sight. It all begins very early in the morning. We were up at 3 am and at the launch site by 5am. They send up about 12 balloons just before daybreak. This is called the Dawn Patrol and because it's still pretty dark the balloons are all lit up in the night sky. Then at dawn the launch all the rest. We both got kinda teary, it is really beautiful. So much color. I'll just post a bunch of photos, though you can't really do the event justice. You really do, have to be there.

Hoover Dam

On the way to New Mexico from Las Vegas, we stopped to see the progress of the new bridge across Hoover Dam. It was incredible and quite lovely. It is quite an accomplishment, almost as much as it was to building it in the 1930's. It is due to open later this month.