Ballard Visit

Mom, Jim, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom were here for the Lucia Festival on Saturday, so we decided to head to Ballard on the actual holiday. We (well, the ladies, not the guys) have been wanting to check out the Ballard Scandinavian Store and Cafe for a while. We enjoyed shopping and treats in the cafe! Leila discovered that she loves lefse! After the Portland-bound folk left for home, Leila and I hung around Ballard a bit longer and found ourselves down at the locks. It was a CHILLY day to be on the water, but we had a great time exploring. 

Lucia Dagen

Leila woke up bright and early on December 13th, St. Lucia Day! We could hear her sneaking around in her bedroom getting dressed and in the kitchen preparing a tray of Swedish yummies. It was hard to stay still and wait for her to come "wake" us. What a fun way to start the morning! My Mom and Jim were here still from enjoying the PLU concert, so they also got to join in the Lucia Festivities with Leila waking them up on the sofa bed. 

For a Christmas present last year, my Mom got Leila a St. Lucia American Girl dress for Judy. We had to get a picture of both our Lucias. 

Sankta Lucia Festival

Leila participated in her second Lucia Festival on December 12th. She was beyond excited for the festival to begin! This year, she learned every song instead of just the Midnatt Rador. After the first rehearsal she was worried that she wouldn't be able to sing the Swedish, but after two days of listening to the songs, she was singing Swedish like a pro! I love watching Leila sing in this concert and I love that we are able to celebrate a holiday that our ancestors would have celebrated in Sweden. 

After the concert is finished and the college-aged Lucia is crowned, there is traditional Swedish singing and dancing around the Christmas Tree. Jultomten even made a visit and passed out presents to the children. He gave Leila a darling hand-painted Lucia ornament for her tree. 

Wouldn't it be amazing if in 12 or so years, we watch Leila be crowned as PLU's Lucia? We think it would be pretty special!

More Rain!

We woke up Saturday morning to more rain! We had so much standing water in the yard that the ducks actually moved in! 

 Here a comparison photo. The one on the left was taken Friday afternoon and the one on the right was 24 hours later. 

Lussekatter Rolls

For Lucia Morning, per Swedish tradition, lussekatter rolls are served. No one in my family, except me, likes to eat these rolls, but it doesn't stop me from making them. I think they look so pretty on Lucia Morning! I got better at shaping them this year and Leila helped a lot more with the process. 

Flooded Yard

 This fall has been full of rain! There have been many days where it has rained 24 hours straight! Our backyard began to flood, but only the yard. There wasn't any damage to the house. The flower beds and lawn were under several inches of water. Leila was really excited to pull on her boots and wade to her play structure. After walking through the water she informed me that I was going to have to dump water out of her boots. I thought she was being silly, but she wasn't. She had neglected to tell me that there were giant holes in the back of her boots! We went inside, changed her socks and shoes and promptly headed out for new rain boots!

Sankta Lucia Crown

As a participant in PLU's Sankta Lucia Festival, Leila was given a a gown and crown of tinsel to wear for the Festival. Only the Lucia Bride gets to wear the crown of greenery and candles, but Leila really wanted her own outfit to wear at home on the 13th. So, Chris made her a crown and I sewed her a gown. It was great fun designing the Lucia outfit as a family!

Santa Pictures

 We had Leila's pictures with Santa taken the first weekend in December this year. On her list this year was the American Girl bathtub and the American Girl crockpot set. Santa surprised Leila when he started talking all about American Girls. He knew their names and everything! She forgot to ask for the crockpot set because of their conversation and didn't remember about it until we were halfway home The tears started! We convinced her to write a letter to Santa. Whew! Crisis averted. 

The Sound of Music ~ 5th Ave Theatre

The holiday show at The 5th Avenue Theatre this year was The Sound of Music. Chris, Leila, Shawn and I went. It was a good show...not as good as Elf or A Christmas Story, but good. We enjoyed the day together though and walking around Seattle at Christmas time is always fun! 

Lucia Craft Night

It is the second year that Leila has been involved with PLU's Sankta Lucia Festival. This is a Swedish holiday that takes place on December 13th. Since PLU has Scandinavian heritage (and so do we!), we get to celebrate Sankta Lucia Day with our PLU community. Leila had to attend several rehearsals over the month leading up to Sankta Lucia, learn 8 songs in Swedish, perform them in the festival and make Swedish woven hearts at Lucia Craft Night. We learned how to make these hearts last year and they are relatively easy once you get the hang of them. They decorate Scandinavian Christmas trees and are filled with candy until St. Knut's Day, when the children pillage the tree, eating all the candy while the grown ups pack away the season's decorations  The woven hearts that we made at PLU's Lucia Craft Night were taken by the college-aged Lucias to a local retirement center to bring some festive cheer to the residents. 

Leila and I (mostly Leila) made 12 hearts in an hour. She asked to bring the tiniest one home to decorate her tree. She was thrilled when she was told she could!

Good 'Ole Singer

Leila had her first official introduction to sewing on the machine over Thanksgiving break. She was interested in watching me that afternoon, so I suggested she piece together a blanket for her dolls. She had the BEST time searching through my fabric scraps, deciding which order to lay the pieces, measuring and cutting the fabric! I was taken back to remembering times with my Grammy when I was allowed to do just the same thing on the exact same machine! It was a lovely day! 

 Her blanket! She promptly wrapped it up and put it under the tree. She was tickled that her gift to her babies was the first gift under our tree. 

Oh, Christmas Tree!

 One of our favorite events of the holiday season is choosing our Christmas tree. We are a real tree family, so we get to traipse around the tree farm in search of the perfect tree! We had to bundle up before heading to the tree farm this year. It was cold! We tried a new type of tree this year, a Nordmann. It was fantastic and probably the healthiest tree we have had over our fifteen Christmases together. We will definitely be seeking out a Norman next December. We were so eager to get our tree this year that when we arrived at the tree farm, the sign said "Open" but there wasn't a single car in the lot and the owner was still inside his house. We went through a nearby Starbucks and when we came back, he was ready to officially start the day. 

Thanksgiving Weekend

 We started decorating for Christmas as soon as Thanksgiving was in the books this year! It was a chilly weekend, but dry, so putting up our outside lights was not challenging. Leila helped quite a bit this year. We replaced our old rainbow colored light strands with red, green and white strands this year. We loved the change! 

 It has been a few years since we put lights up at the top of our driveway. We went back to that this year and all agreed it really makes it welcoming when you pull into the drive. 

Rudolph

Oh, Rudolph! What a weird cat. He loves to pull our bathroom towels off the rack. Almost daily we find a towel on the floor when we get home from work, but finding him wrapped inside of it is a new thing. 

Snow!

We had some super wet snowflakes begin falling one Monday morning before school started. The bell was slated to ring in about two minutes when the flakes really started coming down! Leila and I ran outside our classroom for a quick couple of minutes of standing in the beautiful snow. Sadly, it didn't accumulate and by the first recess, it was only rain. 

Awards Assembly

Leila was given a WOW (Wolf of Wonder) Award in November. She was recognized by her teacher for being kind to others. In addition to that honor, she also received a participation award ribbon for her Reflections Art Program piece. Her artwork won first place in the Visual Arts category for the primary grades! Now her art moves on the district level and will be judged in January. We are so proud of our girl! 

A Weekend In Seattle

We celebrated Gramma and Papa's birthdays in style this year! Instead of having a big, fancy party for Gramma's 60th birthday, we  opted for a fancy dinner at the Space Needle with just the family! It was so special! Dining at the Space Needle was a first for Leila. I have only eaten there once and it was a long, long time ago. It was a very rainy night, but we could still see quite a lot of the city and of course the novelty of eating in a restaurant that was rotating was pretty cool! 

Happy birthday to both of you!

We had to check out the observation deck...even if it was dark, rainy and cold!

The three of us already had tickets to see Seattle Children's Theatre's production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang the following morning, so rather than drive homely to turn around the next morning to trek back to Seattle, we opted for a hotel room. What a fun night! We splurged and stayed at the Westin (Chris and I stayed here the first night of our honeymoon before continuing to Canada). Leila LOVED hotel life in the big city! She had to hang up her clothes all by herself. 

Sunday morning Chris walked across the street and brought Starbucks back for his girls. 

What a change in the weather from the previous night!