Getting in the Holiday Spirit

Downtown Bellevue makes it easy to get outside and enjoy the holidays. Yesterday the girls and I hit the library after school finding books and printing coloring pages. As it started to get dark we headed to our first destination: The Bellevue Botanical Gardens Light Display. They do amazing things with Christmas lights and on the map is a list of animals made of lights for the kids to find. About halfway through another child informed them we had missed the slug make of lights and the girls were determined to go back and find him. It was worth it.

After that we headed to dinner where I pulled the "I'm not a novice mommy anymore" and got out the coloring sheets from the library and a box of colored pencils I had stashed in my purse before leaving home. Dinner involved bacon, beer, and cheese. And lasted a quiet content hour with the girls coloring away.

Last we headed to Snowflake Lane to watch drummers, dancers, and fake snow fall. Snowflake Lane is a 20-ish minute performance put on every night of December in front of Bellevue Square Mall. There are highly anticipated candy cane lollipops and lots of performers dressed as elves, princesses, and winter animals. Catching the fake snow was their favorite part.

The show is the perfect length. At the end the girls are amped up and giddy but haven't had the post lollipop sugar crash. And it is just reaching my threshold of people with zero body awareness and respect for those around them. Thank goodness for that beer.