Day-after-Thanksgiving Tradition

Every day-after-Thanksgiving our family goes to Bellevue Square to have a holiday latte, hot chocolate for the kiddos, see Christmas decorations and shop the sales, although we don't usually buy much at all. I don't really know why this started, oh wait, maybe it was because Mike thinks crazy crowds are quite humorous. He used to go mall shopping on Christmas Eve every year. He never really needed anything, but laughed at other people who did. But since we had the kiddos, after-Thanksgiving craziness seems to be crazy enough.
Today, we had a great time. We found the dress that Paige will wear at Christmas on sale at the Gymboree so while Mike spent an hour in a line that wrapped around the store, the kiddos and I walked around looking at decorations, peeked at Santa (We didn't visit him because the kiddos will do that at the company Christmas party in a couple weeks- Free picture!), and spent a considerable amount of time in the Build-a-Bear Workshop. The kids love this store. Well, all except Jack, who was quite afraid of the stuffer machine. He also doesn't like to hold big stuffed animals or have them near him. My little chicken...
When Mike was finished paying, we watched a local ballet theatre perform parts of The Nutcracker in the center of the mall, while drinking our lattes and drinking and spilling our hot chocolates. Again, everyone was happy. The kids loved the music and dancing, but Jack did NOT like the Nutcracker mask. He didn't cry or anything. Actually, it was quite nice. He just snuggled close to me the whole time.

Jonah and Paige with the Cast of The Nutcracker

We walked through mall, looking in various stores, like Eddie Bauer and the Lego Store (Jonah did not want to leave this store!) and Jonah kept climbing trees. They have live trees in the mall and he couldn't really climb them because the branches were too high, but he did wrap his little legs around them and held on. He was pretending he was a panda all day. So, ofcourse he had claws to hold onto the tree and whenever he ate, it was bamboo, not rice and beans or cereal. Then I spotted an ear-piercing place. Mike and I have been talking to Paige for a while about piercing her ears. She was even going to go with her best friend Gabby awhile back, but it just didn't work out. I wasn't sure I wanted to pierce her ears anyway, but she sure did and Daddy was 100% behind her. So, my big girl looks even more like a big girl! sniff sniff

Here is Paige, so excited. She was not nervous or afraid one bit.


Ouch!!!!! You told me it wouldn't hurt Lady! The camera battery died here. She was smiling within seconds and couldn't stop smiling!

We had lunch at Taco Del Mar (one of the only places we feel we can take Jack without worrying about milk, cheese and butter being in everything). Paige smiled the whole time. She just felt beautiful. We'll have to get a shot of her with her earrings soon. She chose flower shaped birthstone (ruby for her) earrings. They do look really pretty in her cute little ears.

So, that was pretty much it. We bought very little and did not so much, but it took us more than 4 hours to do what we did!