Almost Christmas Eve

Our traditional Christmas Eve activities were moved up one day this year, to the 23rd. We typically go downtown, see all the Christmas decorations in the big hotels, eat a nice lunch, watch ice skating and finish up any last minute shopping. And typically it's not very crowed, being Christmas Eve, but this year it was pack downtown because it was two days before Christmas. But we made the most of it, trying to squeeze in all our activities and then some!
The children were mesmerised by the turning gingerbread castle and train in the St. Francis

Checking out all the Christmas trees...
A little last minute shopping...we stopped at William Sonoma and caught a cooking demo! And Timo wants to add this massage chair from Brookstone to his Christmas list!
The San Francisco Shopping Center had a really cool light show under the dome. I caught everyone enjoying the show...
It was on to lunch at our traditional Scala's restaurant. We've been going there for the past four years and it's nice when they remember you when you walk in the door. My friend, Tim, is also the pastry chef here and it's always nice to see him too!
The kids love this place, they have paper on the table so they get to color their color sheets AND on top of the table. Add a little pizza, ice cream and hot chocolate, the kids were in heaven!


We had to skip the skating rink, closed for cleaning, and strolled around taking in the sights while we waited for the sun to set and the Christmas lights to light up.
After sunset we drove down to see the lights in south San Francisco. One neighborhood really comes together and puts on an amazing show!

Sacked out after a full day of Christmas time! Both Timo and Cameron feel asleep while driving around so Young and I took the opportunity to continue driving and looking at the city lit up for Christmas. It was so nice driving and having uninterrupted conversation...