Silver Lining: the holidays are officially here: Lighting of the Riverwoods 2012

November 18, 2012

the holidays are officially here: Lighting of the Riverwoods 2012

One of my favorite holiday traditions is to go to Christmas tree lightings.

Growing up in Portland, I loved going to Pioneer Courthouse Square when they lit up the tree.

Now, I go to the lighting of the Riverwoods. Tons of people come, and there's a big hullabaloo when the lights turn on and Santa rides in on a sleigh {Christmas is all about Santa, children}.Then, everyone wanders around in a jolly mess of window shopping and children licking the ice sculptures and free cookies. To me, it officially marks the beginning of the holidays.



This year, we went with our friends the Bennetts and their cute bundled-up baby. There may or may not have been an incident in Blickenstaff's where we wound up all the toy chicks and had races with them. Don't tell the management it was us.


The bundled-up baby herself (who gets to go to Disneyland this week! How lucky is that?)
Look! It's our cousin Matt! Doing all his official Riverwoods photographer business. And while we're on the topic, I want to let it be known to the public that Matt's hair has magical properties.



They had an awesome gingerbread house competition. 















I'm trying to wean myself off the automatic settings in my camera. It's a slow process, but it was fun to experiment in the low light. Even though sometimes it means "Sam! Go stand under that tree while I try five different ISO settings!"


All in all, the Riverwoods lighting makes us feel like the holiday season has begun. Bring on the peppermint hot chocolate and the sledding!



What do you do to kick off the holiday season?
We're always looking for fun new things to try :)


12 comments:

  1. cool post! I totally adore your blog design by the way :)
    xx, Anh from tha.Darlinh

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  2. That looks like so much fun...and your pictures turned out beautiful!

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  3. I loved the Courthouse Square lighting when I lived in Portland! What a fun way to kick off the holidays.

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  4. i can't do christmas until after thanksgiving, i feel even guilty looking at these, but i had to.
    looks like fun!

    K

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  5. Lovely pics... puts me in a festive mood!


    http://danaslookbook.blogspot.com/

    XOXO Dana

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  6. Love that second to last pic of the Christmas lights. And the one of you, of course, I'm just saying that one was a particular favorite. Decorating our tree is one of my favorite things to do. We always do it the day after Thanksgiving.

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  7. Looks like tons of fun! I'm so glad they're not letting River Wood die. I love that shopping complex.

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  8. so pretty! I used to drive by the riverwoods every morning on my way to teach, and I loved seeing the lights :)
    And haha, I laughed so hard at your chick races!

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  9. Sounds like a great way to hit off the holiday season! I wish Florida had a bit more "wintery"-ness to it so it felt more like the holidays, but hey, I think I can force it with tons of peppermint hot cocoa! So excited to get to know you as a follower!

    Kaylee,
    http://kayleehornsby.blogspot.com

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  10. This looks so fun! Gorgeous photos! I never knew about this I'll have to go next year, were so close! You look pretty and that baby is adorable! Following you back! I love your cute blog :)
    -Jessi
    haircutandgeneralattitude.blogspot.com

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  11. Goodness, Matthew looks kind of like a bum. I'm not so sure about the magical properties of his hair...

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  12. Lovely photos! Looks like so much fun!
    I'm following along from the followers to friends blog party. :)

    www.thislifesbeautifulmoments.com

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