Garden d’Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Garden

Over 500,000 lights transformed the Bellevue Botanical Garden into a blossoming winter wonderland of three dimensional flowers, shrubs, vines and animals at the annual Garden d’Lights Thursday, Dec. 26, 2013, in Bellevue. Hundreds of volunteers worked year round to bring the visual feast to light. Open from 5 PM to 10 PM every evening for a fee of five dollars, the outdoor installation concludes on January 4, 2014. (Jordan Stead, seattlepi.com)

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Nutcracker | Seattle, Wash.

Performers present a dress rehearsal of the upcoming 30th anniversary production of Pacific Northwest Ballet’s internationally acclaimed Nutcracker Friday, Nov. 29, 2013, at McCaw Hall in Seattle. Thirty-one performances of the Nutcracker will run between November 30 through December 29 of this year. (Jordan Stead, seattlepi.com)

Cabin Getaway Weekend | Plain, Washington

Spent a quiet, relaxing weekend with buddies Mark Malijan and Andy Jaeger in the town aptly named Plain, Washington. Got my feet in some snow, felled a handsome Christmas three and drank a beer in the back of an open trailer in a mini-blizzard. All in all, not the worst time I've ever had. Enjoy some pictures from the low-key adventure.