In the Air there's a Feeling of Christmas

My parents came to my house for Christmas!!! You have no idea all that went on to get them here. We wanted them to be GRANDPARENTS this year. They are always the ones hosting events especially to the 4 children who live around them. With all the memories I have of Christmas with my Grandma Paulsen I thought it was about time to give those same memories to my children. So, one day, without much hope I threw the idea out to my dad, "why don't you guys come for Christmas at my house?" He said his usual non-committal, "Oh, well, we'll have to see." It wasn't until a week before Christmas that the commitment was made... but it wasn't until THE DAY they were to get here that we knew WHEN they were coming. They arrived on Sunday, Dec. 20th. Our favorite uncle Marc was with them. We were singing our Chorus of Hallelujahs when they arrived. Yipee!

Merrill flew in from Chicago on Monday. We picked him up from the airport and went straight to Seattle to see the "city sidewalks; busy sidewalks; blinks of bright red and green." The hotels were having all sorts of decorations and displays that were fun to see. We had us a hotel tour.

Merrill checking to see if his name made it on Santa's nice list.

The Teddy Bear Display in one of the rooms of the hotel.

Jeff loved taking this photo.

Cute Kaden. Tight squinty eyes = big, huge smile.

We didn't want to wait in the huge line to see the gingerbread structures, so we walked behind the gingerbread structures and got good shots of the backsides of them. Can you tell this is the mountain from "Polar Express."

Amazing! It's all food.

Macy's window Train display. These little boys were drooling... couldn't pull them away from watching the trains.

It was so cold this day that I had to bundle up as best I could. The family called me their Polish Grandmother. I don't care.

A little Carousal Riding... along with Dickens Carolers and other musical performers. We had no idea the celebrating would be so grand.

Jeff is so happy to be seen with me.

Pike's Market.

We squished into this booth to share 3 bowls of clam chowder and 1 BLT. When the waiter gave us our bill he said he's never seen such a small bill for such a large group before.

So much fun! So great to be together on an outing. If we weren't in the Christmas Spirit before we sure were after this day.