Life at a "Swell's" pace: 2015

On our way up to Portland it was raining and then the sun was trying to creep through the clouds. There was several moments of rain/sun/rain/sun and it gave way for a nice sight of a rainbow.

It was later in the evening once we got into Portland and the sun peeking through the clouds was nowhere to be seen. But that didn't deter us from heading straight to Macy's and B-lining to Santa.

Skylar-Braden wrote a very matter-of-fact "quick" letter to Santa before we got there.

The rain started in once we parked. Typical Oregon weather.

We headed up the escalators to the street. We ended up parking below the street and had to head up to get to street level. It was a nice alternative than walk in the rain.

We went downstairs in Macy's and Skylar-Braden was able to fix his letter to Santa at the Believe desk. He was happy to make it look less messy. He is getting so big, but still loves to mail the letters. Paint me proud!

A replica of the old monorail that used to travel around the Santa room. It stopped operation in 2005 and at that time the Macy's was known as Meier & Frank.

All of the reindeer in the stables.

Macy's layout at Christmas is one of the best I've seen. It's such a great treat for us each year.

He is next to see Santa!

It's always fun to look back on the pictures we get each year and see how much he has grown.

The actual train cars from the children's ride that used to be part of the Macy's Santa Land.

Downton Portland was our next stop. We wanted to see Hipster Santa, but the layout of where he was sitting was a bit off. There were more adults around than kids and the rain started coming down. It was more of a comical sight than a Christmas sight. It gave us all a good laugh though. Leave it to Portland, Oregon to bring out a hipster Santa for the holiday.

The 2015 Christmas tree in Pioneer Courthouse Square. This area is considered Portland's living room.

The Pioneer Courthouse.

The infamous Martini Glass in the West Hills. This martini glass is a reminder to drivers to call a cab if you've had too much to drink. It went away for a few years and this year it finally made a comeback.

After leaving Portland we headed toward Tigard to Washington Square. We had only one stop inside Washington Square and that stop was the LEGO Store. Skylar-Braden loves the Pick-a-Brick Wall and sometimes, even if you aren't a LEGO fan, it's a pretty neat wall to see. The rainbow of colors are almost mesmerizing.

Skylar does some fun LEGO reviews and Matchbox Car reviews on his YouTube Channel. If you are a LEGO fan, you might find it informative.

Can't wait until next year!

Macy's Santa Land 2014

Macy's Santa Land 2013

Macy's Santa Land 2012

(2012 was the year of the norovirus outbreak)

What happened this time last year?

Merry 'Day after Christmas.' Hope your Christmas celebration was as great as ours. I always love when Christmas falls on a Friday and you have two more days to enjoy the celebration and good tidings. Such a great way to end a week. We are totally soaking up the long-days of Christmas in our house here and are looking forward to the New Year. This time of year we always get into the funk of the winter blues, but we found a few things to help combat those winter blues. What do you do to beat the winter blues? Hopefully a few things on this list can help you too. With that, here are the things that made this week amazing!

1. This Holly Tree.

This tree grows near our bank and I have always been jealous of it. It sits on a property that isn't well maintained and I've always wanted to uproot it and rescue it. It looks amazing right now!

2. These Moments.

We've taken to more reading before bed lately and during those time, it's such a great moment to see Skylar-Braden's personality come out. He is definitely a mini-me and I love it! You can check out our reading list here, or check out what is new on the SNS Reading List here.

3. This Knife Rack.

Because we live in a small house and this saves amazing amounts of space. The one we have is here.

4. These Photos.

Just a few photos of the neighborhood I live in. The top one is of the Justice Center here. It houses the police department and municipal court for the city. The second one is a shot of downtown during the twilight hour. I love the way both of them turned out. Oregon has some great areas worth visiting. These photos can also be seen on my Instagram page here.

5. These Books.

Have you gotten into the coloring book fade yet? I am not sure why this is so popular now, I've been coloring in coloring books since I was a kid. I really colored a lot when I was pregnant with Skylar-Braden and even though I was on bed rest, it helped relax me during that time. These Adult Coloring Books have a bit more mature patterns over rabbits in a thicket, or a bear having a picnic. I ended up enjoying mine so much, I got one for my sister, my sister-in-law, and my mom. You can snag these books here.

Extras:

• This Star Wars movie surprise.

We told Skylar-Braden that we couldn't get tickets in time to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens and we were headed down to Eugene to do some last minute Christmas shopping instead. I told him to dress like a Jedi Knight and maybe someone will sell us some tickets while we are there. Little did he know, we had already purchased the tickets and the trip to Eugene was a Christmas surprise for him. He didn't have a clue until we got to the ticket window and the lady said, go on in and have your Fandango ticket scanned. Then I turned to him and said, "Merry Christmas, buddy." His surprise made me tear up. It was great and we had such a wonderful time. We watching it in IMAX 3D and, in my opinion, that's the only way to watch a 3D movie. The entire theater was packed with Star Wars fans too. It was a neat thing to see so many dressed up and excited for the movie.