Tacoma Christmas

We finished out Christmas in Montana and joined the Glassman family for Christmas, round 3 (or is it round 4 for us now? I can't keep track!). Ann, Paul and Julia joined us with John, Diana and Katie in Tacoma for a wonderful afternoon of Seahawks victories, dinner and presents!

 Tom got to be "Santa" and pass out all the presents. This never ceases to be exciting for him :)

 After the gifts were unwrapped, we set out for Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium for Zoo lights!

 We donned our jackets and sweaters and wandered through the wonderland of lights.

 

Look at the incredible view from the "top" of the zoo. It was magical.

 These spiders got to have their debut during the "Black Cat Fun Run" that John, Diana and Katie participated in back in October. Spooky and Christmas-y all at the same time :)

 After the Hawks win, this tree was particularly fitting!

 The aquarium was open for us to explore in between the different light exhibits. These sting rays were particularly cute because of their small size.

 

Even the palm trees in the aquarium got dressed up for the season.

 Tom and Julia got to pet the sting rays. They both described them as "slimy."

 This fish was HUGE and liked to hang out on the bottom of the tank.

 Here's a few more shots of the amazing sights in the aquarium.

 This fish (you  might have a hard time viewing him because of his camouflaging abilities) would bury into the sand and then come in and out of his little burrowed hole.

 Here you can see him half-way into his hole.

 Look at the rainbow lights!

 

Mr crab wanted to say hi to all of us.

 And the eels tried to hide from us in their caves.

 Then came my favorite: the jelly fish!

 This picture is poor quality but I think one of the favorite light exhibits was the one with Mt. Rainier as well as the polar bears!

 

This tree was breath taking (the photo doesn't do it justice) but it was SO FULL of lights.

 The narrows bridge exhibit was really great too.

 All in all, it was a great way to wrap up the Christmas season. Now we celebrate New Year's and get ramped up for the next half of the school year. I (as usual) am a little anxious about it, but have a few more days to prepare before classes start on Monday (for me, at least).