Santa at Alderbrook

Every year we try to get out to Alderbrook on the Hood Canal to kick off the holiday season and see Santa.  It's so beautiful and relaxing there!  This year, after I made our little family's reservation, Grandma and Grandpa decided to make one also.  Then Aunt Kim and her family decided to make one, then Aunt Risa and Aunt Kora decided to come as well.  It was a fun and festive time with all the cousins!  First up to meet Santa was baby Don (7 months old).  He was okay at first but then decided that the stranger with the big white beard was a little scary...

After Baby D. had his turn, I went to get Sophia and Griffin.  I turned around and Griffin was already up in Santa's lap telling him about the brand new trains he wants for Christmas.  :o)  Santa is one of Griffin's best buddies this year!

Sophia joined her brother on Santa's lap and very politely told him that she would love an Easy Bake Oven for her special Christmas treat this year.

Baby Ty (1 month) also got to meet Santa.  He was perfectly fine with the big guy in red.  :o)

Abigail, on the other hand, would have NOTHING to do with that guy!!  This was as close as she would get to him...  Trying to get a picture of all these cutie-patooties was quite a fiasco.  Hilarious for us, probably really annoying to everyone else waiting to see Santa.  oops. :o)

Here are the little Wyckoff babies with Santa...  We had to keep Abigail (2 years) distracted so that she didn't figure out that he was right behind her.  heehee!

 The Faatoafe family looking beautiful, as usual...

Time for a sleigh ride!

Griffin's favorite part of the whole weekend - the big train in the lobby.

And before we headed out we took a walk out on the dock and around the resort.  It was a beautiful day!



Morning chuckle

Load this baby up and get him out of that barn!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Another successful trip to the tree farm this year.  We found a beautiful tree and just what we were looking for - tall and slender.  I learned another new thing - don't give kids gum if you want them to smile for pictures!  Griffin is chewing his gum in all the above pics, so it was hard to have him pause for a moment with a smile for the camera.

Both kids hung up lots of decorations for me.  Then took them down to play, then hung them up, then took them down...  Busy day!  Here's a video clip of my two goof balls at the tree farm.

Santa Visits Tenino!

We headed into downtown Tenino on Friday evening to see the tree lighting and Santa!  Griffin loved the motorcycle show that kicked off the ceremonies.

 Then we heard the sirens from the firetrucks that were bringing Santa!  Sophia was jumping up and down with excitement along with some of her friends from school.  Griffin was very excited, too!

The next picture is a little blurry, but you can see Sophia in the purple with her arm around her baby brother, walking him up to see Santa.  She takes such good care of him!

 Score!!

Posing in front of the fire truck...

Taking a little break to enjoy their candy canes...

 And the lit tree with a tiny speck of a moon in the background.  It was a beautiful, clear, and cold evening.  This is fun little ceremony and Sophia definitely loved seeing her school friends and hanging out for a little bit.  Very cute!