The good and the bad

The good. One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting Christmas cards. It is so fun to go to the mailbox and find cards and pictures from friends and family. We hang them all up on our closet door to enjoy during the month. We sure know alot of great people! It seems like everyone is doing the photo cards now as they are cheap and cute. I bought 50 photo cards from Costco this year and it wasn't enough. If you didn't get a card from me, I'm sorry and next year I'll order more.
Since moving here 4 years ago I have wanted to attend an event called Snowflake Lane at a mall in Bellevue, Washington. This year I was determined to go and my mom agreed to go with me. My brother Bryce came along too and my big girls came. The word my girls used to describe the experience was "terrible". The drive to Bellevue was speedy but as soon as we tried to exit the freeway we joined a long line of cars (all probably going to Snowflake Lane) that we were in for 30 minutes to go 3 miles. Finally we made it to the mall parking structure and then we were in a long line of cars looking for a parking space. With just 5 minutes to spare we got parked and started running to the Snowflake Lane area. When we got there we could hardly open the doors of the building we were in to get onto the sidewalk where the festivities took place. It was solid people. I kept hold of my girls' coats so I wouldn't lose them. I was anticipating a winter parade but what we got is Christmas music out of a loud speaker and a drummer boy up on a stand dancing and drumming to the music. We all stood there squished looking at him and wondering "Is this it?". At one point bubbles shot out from the top of a nearby building as snow but it never fell far enough down to hit us. Fortunately my mom found a toy soldier walking by handing out peppermint lollipops and got some for the girls. After 10 minutes it was over and we pushed our way back into the mall. This was definitely the bad of the day. We won't be going back.

Fortunately the inside of the mall was not so crowded. I snapped this picture of my brother and mom.

We saw Santa and his reindeer but did not join the 1 hour line to get a photo with him. Santa is on a sleigh over in the lighted area .
After visiting a few stores in the mall and seeing that I could get presents wrapped for just $8-$20 a gift depending on size (How can they charge that much I wondered) we headed back to the parking garage. I guess everyone was heading home at the same time because we got in a very long line of cars exiting. After dropping off my mom and brother we drove by the awesome house in their neighborhood that always has amazing Christmas lights. The girls got out and got their picture taken with the lights. The good.

Today I am thanful that:

*Nathan has been wearing a BYU baseball cap for the past 24 hours--it is just so cute!

*They sell knock off Ugg boots at Target for $20. I saw some real Ugg boots at Nordstorm yesterday for $225.00. Yikes!

*Holly and Emily have wrapped up a lot of their old toys for Megan and Melissa for Christmas.