These pictures are from Thanksgiving, but Santa is BACK at Pike Place this Saturday, Dec. 14. Free Santa photos 10-3.

If you spend $50 at the market, you also get a cute Pike Place shopping basket and a roll of Pike Place tissue paper. Happy shopping!

The line was long, so we cheated and took a picture from the fence.

Gum wall must have been recently pressure-washed; it was looking less gross than usual.

Cookie-decorating and live music in the atrium.

Not sure if Paul has enough frosting and sprinkles on his cookie.

No cons here, just pros! The theme of the 30th annual gingerbread village at the Sheraton Grand Seattle is iconic destinations.

Four cities featured: Agra, London, Sydney and Paris.

Runs through Jan. 1, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It gets busier the closer you get to Christmas. Go early or go late in the day, and do a weekday if you can.

Pros and cons, the Kringle's Filling Station edition:

Pros:

• Hot cocoa from the gas pump was warm and chocolate-y.
• Unlimited games! We were there for FOUR hours and only left because it was a school night. Loved that they're old school, low tech games.
• Tickets are $18 per person; I bought ours during the pre-sale for $15. I'd say we got our money's worth.
• Close by, on Aurora just north of the zoo.

Cons:

• Witnessed some parents behaving badly. That was weird and uncomfortable.
• The games are getting WELL-LOVED. Some of it is worn, and I touched something sticky.

The verdict: We'll be back!

Step 1: Declutter and organize
Step 2: Clean
Step 3: Set up the guest room
Step 4: Inventory your dishes, chairs
Step 5: Decorate for cheap, aka find some pinecones

… (Step 6: Sleep for a week! 😅)

I wrote this week's At Home cover story for The Seattle Times.

Q: What was the first Christmas carol played in space?

A: Jingle Bells!

Paul correctly guessed the answer and won a candy cane from Santa. Loved the trivia contest, Seattle Girls Choir and hot cocoa on board the Argosy Christmas ship. We'll watch from shore later this month when they come through Ballard Locks. Such a fun holiday tradition!

Thinking about going to the Seattle Christmas Market?

Pros:

• Kids LOVED riding the double-decker carousel. Unlimited rides included with admission.
• We met the famous Seattle muralist Henry! He was so nice.
• We ate a lot of fudge samples.
• If you need a hack to get kids to wash their hands, I've discovered the secret. The kids picked out handmade soap from one of the vendors, and now they can't WAIT to wash their hands with bubble-gum scented soap.

Cons:

• You're essentially paying $20 admission to go shopping. (They did add some $5 days after complaints last year.)
• Food was VERY expensive, like $20 for a little dish.
• A large part of Seattle Center, which used to be public, is now walled off. This used to be the $6 ice rink that was very affordable and fun.

This is the honest Enchant Christmas review you need.

In a nutshell, Enchant is like Disney. It's magical and beautiful and your kids will LOVE it. But prepare to pay an arm and a leg for admission and, once inside, to be nickeled and dimed on everything.

A regular tree lighting is anti-climactic, but a tree lighting with fireworks?! Downtown Seattle Association put on a great show. It made my heart so happy to see Westlake packed with people.

Impressive fireworks. We've never watched a show so close-up!

The Nordstrom Santa came up to the window and waved to kids in between shoots. Nordstrom's set is so pretty and they take time to arrange the picture so everyone looks nice. For $10!

I wrote about my favorite time of year in Seattle. Sure, the holidays can be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. My story made the lede story on seattletimes.com! Here’s a link.

Someday I'll have my aesthetic Christmas tree, and then I'll probably miss when the kids loved making their own ornaments. Our annual salt dough day is still the holiday event they look forward to most.

Here's the recipe:

• 4 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• About 2 cups of hot water (keep adding until it gets to dough consistency)
• Optional food coloring

Stick in the oven at 325 degrees for 45 minutes so it dries and hardens.