Christmas tradition #2

My second favorite Christmas tradition is taking the kids to see Santa and getting their picture taken. I have a wall full of pictures... I love to look at them. This tradition started when I was a child. I remember my parents taking the whole family (9 kids) to downtown Seattle to the Frederick & Nelson's department store. We'd follow the Grinch footsteps through the store to find Santa and then we'd get our picture taken. It was always a big scene to get all of us to fit in the picture. I loved this tradition so much that one year when I was home from college, I was a Santa's elf at Frederick and Nelson's in Bellevue square. It was so fun. Maybe later, I will dig out my pictures and scan them.

Anyway, we picked up the boys from the airport last night and went straight to Town Square to see Santa. I usually try to go early in the season to avoid the lines... but somehow it didn't happen this year. So, you guessed it, there was an hour long line! and to make it worse, it's an outdoor mall, so we were freezing inline. The kids were so happy by the time they saw Santa....
Luckily the professional shot turned out a little better.

The boys had a great time at the big game! It was 7 degrees at the game the beginning of the game, 3 degrees by the end. with a wind chill of -15 to -17. The coldest game ever in the history of Bears games and it went to overtime so it was longer than normal! Like 3 hours isn't long enough! Doesn't sound fun to me. John said it was cold the first half while they were loosing.... and then they warmed up when they caught up at the end. It was a pretty exciting game and the fact that they won made it all worth it! I'm glad they were able to go. I was especially glad that they made it home last night. Flights were delayed in Chicago and we got a little nervous that they might get stuck! They had fun spending time with John's sister and her family.