Black Friday in downtown Seattle is a relatively calm experience. The shops open much later in the day and all the crazy people have hit all the big box stores at least four hours prior. Commencing my shopping experience during the parade provides for solitude in the stores.....that is until I enter Old Navy, which is the equivalent in my book to walking into the eye of the storm. I have one rule on Black Friday: keep my expectations low! Whether I snag a good deal or not I still enjoy the festive window displays and the buzz in the air.

This year I expanded my Black Friday route and ventured down to Pike Place Market. I was on a hunt to find a potted tree for our side table and happily walked away with this little beauty. As I carried it through the streets of Seattle you would have thought I had a baby on my hip by the amount of oohing and aaahing it received.

This year we had talked about cutting down our Christmas tree, but convenience won out and on Saturday we trekked a couple blocks to our local nursery to find our perfect Christmas tree. Since Saturday was Small Business Saturday we ate at two of our favorite mom and pop restaurants and made a few purchases from our local boutiques.

Instead of just snapping photos of Cameron walking with it, I actually helped carry it this year. (On a side note: It was the smallest tree we have ever had, so my help was really not needed, but I felt cool walking down the street holding a tree.)

Since living in downtown Kirkland we have made it a tradition to attend the annual Tree Lighting ceremony. We were surprised to see the tree's location had changed and I was saddened by the absence of live reindeer, but we still enjoyed the free cocoa, small bonfires and the streets being closed off.