Author: Caroline

I keep a ridiculous stash of cookie cutters for the one day of the year we use them: our annual salt dough ornament making event. 4 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 2 cups hot water and the food coloring of your choice.

Win 2 for the Downtown Seattle Association. They lured me to Pioneer Square with ice skating, and now to Westlake — at night, no less — with these light installations. Enchant skipped Seattle this year, so these were a fun (and free) substitute.

Gingerbread house making and tree decorating. The boys did the tree themselves, and they did a shockingly good job. Miss the days when they were short, and all the ornaments would be grouped at the bottom of the tree.

We went to Great Wolf and lived to tell the tale. The key is to not think about what’s in that water! Great Wolf survival guide here.

It was a tough assignment but someone had to do it: we went to check out the new Arena Sports facility in Issaquah, which has an inflatables zone and 100 games in the arcade. Here’s a link to my story on ParentMap.

Letters to Santa written and dropped off at Santa’s official mailbox (in Ballard, at 80th and Earl).

It was 31 degrees at drop off this morning. Photo of the confused tree in front of McClure that thinks it’s spring.

Gingerbread houses at the Sheraton are BACK! This year’s theme is Buzz Lightyear. Smaller display than previous years’ but we’re just so happy this tradition returned after a 2-year hiatus. Paul took one look and say, “Hey, they used glue.” Yup, even the pros need a little help.

The Downtown Seattle Association hosted free ice skating with free skates this weekend in Occidental Square, even a free Uber ride to get there. Their goal was to lure people to the neighborhood, and hey, it worked on me. We hadn’t been to that part of the city since 2019. The rink was tiny and…

We spend 95 percent of our time in the kitchen. Here’s how it looks camera-ready vs. how it actually looks most nights (an explosion of homework, groceries, dinner, dirty dishes). I talked to architectural photographers about how to photograph your home in the best light, and their number one tip was CLEAN IT UP. Here’s…