Merry Christmas!

We had a holly jolly Christmas this year. Ethan was a very good boy, something that he kept reminding us all the way up to Christmas Eve. This year was a fun one since Santa was finally in the picture and Ethan was well aware what Santa brought on his sleigh, presents! And what did Ethan ask Santa for this Christmas? A Mickey Mouse and a dump truck and luckily Santa's elves were able to make both of these.

(The elves working into the night on Christmas Eve)

(Santa's gifts of a Puppet Theater)

(Home made cookies and milk for Santa in case he was hungry)

(Christmas morning. Ethan became a master un-wrapper)

(Ethan putting on some shows)

(The Christmas aftermath)

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas this year and with New Year's right around the corner it got me thinking about New Year's resolutions. What are your New Year's resolutions? Mine are listed below.

• Be more creative. I plan on doing more sewing, painting, becoming a better photographer, and hopefully learning to play some guitar this year.
• Have more family fun adventures that include getting out of the house more and just enjoying nature and each other's company and also plenty of travel I am sure. I got a new camping stove for Christmas so I hope to have a few camping trips under our belt this year. Of course that most likely means staying in a cabin but we will still be using the camping stove. :)
• Updating my blog a little more often. Life goes by to quickly so its great to take a snap shot of it every once in a while before it passes you by.
• Being healthy. But isn't this on everyone's list? ;)

Santa Visit.

We made our annual excursion to the town of North Bend to take the train and visit Santa Claus. The weather turned out perfect which equals not to chilly. We bundled up just in case and had a great time. You catch the train at North Bend and take it to the town of Snoqualmie. Once there you get to go and visit Santa and a toy, followed by cookies and hot chocolate in one of the rail cars. It is a great time, even if you don't have kids and want to go on an old fashioned train ride up in the mountains. You can check it out here if you are interested - Santa Train.

Ethan for some reason did not want to look at Santa but he did tell Santa what he wants for Christmas, a Mickey Mouse and Dump Truck.

Let the holiday festivities begin.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I sure know that we did and are very thankful for what we have, great family and friends. It was a winter wonderland during Thanksgiving week so we were home all week and even had a chance to play in the snow.

Since we had a long weekend we decided it would be the perfect time to go out and get a Christmas tree. A few weeks ago we had ventured out to nearby Woodinville and noticed a tree farm along the side of the road. We decided that Saturday was the day to give it a try and I am so happy that we stopped by the Red Barn Tree Farm. You could either cut your own tree or get a Noble Fir that was already pre-cut. We love Noble Firs so we decided to go that route and I am so glad we did since we ended up with a beautiful tree. Ethan was extremely excited about the tree farm since they gave out candy canes and he sure loves candy. Jeff even was able to put up the Christmas lights so you can just call us the Kalles/Griswald family. :-)

Disneyland

It has always been a dream of mine to go to Disneyland during Halloween time. Something about the decorations, the Haunted Mansion all decorated up in Nightmare Before Christmas, and of course because it is my favorite holiday. We were originally going to wait until Ethan was a little older before we went but when our friends invited us to go with we couldn't resist.

We had such a fantastic trip and it was a great age to take Ethan. He absolutely loved Disneyland and he loved the rides especially, and of course Mickey Mouse. We went on the majority of the rides at both parks with his favorites being the Buzz Lightyear ride at Disneyland followed by the Toy Story ride at California Adventure. Can you see a theme? Ethan even rode the roller coaster the Matterhorn that was a little scary. Not because of the ride but because of the monster noises in it.

We ended up spending the extra money to stay at the Grand Californian Hotel and boy was it worth it. I loved having our own entrance into the park and they even upgraded our room to the Park view. Ethan is already asking to go back.

Here are a few of the pictures that we took. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch.

We had a very rainy weekend but the clouds finally opened up just a little to let us go and get our pumpkins at the Stocker Farm Pumpkin Patch in Snohomish, Washington. We have been going there since Ethan was born and it is a great place to go and pick your own pumpkins. When the weather turned a little better in the afternoon we took our chance and our rainboots and headed out. Ethan found two right away that he really liked. They are the little ones in the pictures and Jeff and I picked out ours. Ethan found several others but finally settled on his favorites. We are going to wait a week or so to carve them and when we do I will post the finished results.

Rainy Day Sunday.

The Seahawks played today and since one game seemed to be enough for Ethan and we thought that daddy needed a break to go actually watch the game Ethan and I headed up to Bellingham to visit my dad. The day started out rainy and dreary and the whole drive up to Bellingham was that way. When we finally got there the rain stopped for a little bit in order to let us make a trip up to Ferndale to Hovander Homestead Park to explore. Enjoy the photo's.