Bellevue Bonanza

This year, the city of Bellevue has decided to compete with the city of Seattle in the area of "Christmas Extravaganza." Our first stop was the ice rink . . .

Haley was less than thrilled when we began (as was I with the ridiculously looooong lines) but once she set foot on the ice, she took off with true enthusiasm leaving the rest of us in her dust. Hannah thought she was ready for the Olympics after her first loop around . . . three or four or five falls later, however, she decided it was still okay to hold mom and dads hands every once in a while.

We met my sweet sister-in-law Bonnie and my favorite nephew Moses (okay - only nephew - but still one of the cutest babies around!!) and had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. It is an amazing restaurant with WAY to many food choices. My fabulous hubby let me choose his and mine so I could taste two things!! The Marsh family surprised me with a candle-lit slice of cheesecake as an early birthday treat.

The grand finale of the night was the amazing Snowflake Lane parade/show along the main street of Bellevue (conveniently located by the mall?!). We were beyond impressed with the marching drum line, snow princess, lights, music all around and snow shooting from the roofs of the buildings . . . the kids were wide-eyed as were the grown ups . . . what fun!!

On our walk back to the car we had lots of laughs creating our own renditions of "We wish you a Merry Christmas" adding such timeless lyrics as "Please still shop more in Bellevue" and "Don't care if you use credit, cash or debit" . . . in reverence of the 20,000 people flooding into the mall after the show . . . and yet, in spite of the silly push for commercialism, it was an incredible feeling standing as a community and experiencing joy together . . . who knew you could have so much fun on a street corner?!