christmas cheer

I love this cute music/video clip. Music by the MoTab. I'm going to have the kids in primary act out the nativity during our music time on Sunday.

'tis the season

You know it's Christmas around here because Little S insists we read The Night Before Christmas every night as one of her 3 books before bed. I must admit it is very sweet to have a little one fall asleep laying next to me as I'm reading those words. We have the version illustrated by Mary Engelbreit. It was a gift to Little S 2 years ago and when she was younger she liked reading it just because there was so much candy in the illustrations. She would pretend to pick pieces of candy off the page and eat them.

You know it's Christmas around here because we've made 4 batches of my great-grandma's peanut butter cup cookies and a batch of fudge in 24 hours. We attended a play-group cookie exchange today that was much fun. We've been reading a Christmas scripture and singing a carol each night - Little S finds the scripture/carol card that's hidden on the tree each night. We've also been eating by candlelight to remind her that it's a special time (the candlelit dinner idea was on Inchmark).

You know it's Christmas around here because D and I were up late last night sticking labels and stamps on our Christmas cards. At least everyone will get them before Christmas this year!

You know it's Christmas around here because a few days ago my neighbors could spy me chasing the girls around the front yard trying to get pics worthy of a Christmas card. I liked this one but D gave me a veto.

You know it's Christmas around here because Little S is singing her school Christmas program songs to herself in the backseat as we drive around town. The program is tomorrow and in the evening we have her music class Christmas program. It's going to be a big day for her.

Thanksgiving in DC

We flew coast-to-coast the day before Thanksgiving to spend the holiday in Washington, DC. Neither of us had been to our capitol before even though we presently have many family members living in the area: my brother, D's sister and her husband and 3 kids, my aunt and uncle and 2 of my cousins. We stayed with my aunt and uncle near Arlington and my mom flew in on Thanksgiving so it was quite and extended reunion!

We hit most of the major sites, but I didn't get to see much of the art I was hoping to enjoy - next time... The books did not lie when they wrote that DC is the most kid-friendly city in the States. One could spend weeks entertaining the little ones with fantastic activities, many of them free! It really is a beautiful city and we hope to go back soon.

We walked right into the National Archives - no line or wait! Part of our preparation for the trip was watching the 7 hour John Adams series by HBO (not enough time to read the book). We loved the show and it refreshed us on our early American history and got us excited to see the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

We rode the elevator to the top of the Washington monument. It was a beautifully clear day. You could see about 40 miles in every direction from the top.

My modern art connoisseur wanted her picture taken with every sculpture in the National Gallery's sculpture garden. We had a delicious lunch at the cafe that sits in the middle of the garden.
A highlight for Little S was the Nutcracker performance we attended by the Puppet Co. in Glen Echo Park, Maryland. It did not disappoint! Various kinds of puppets were used from marionettes to hand puppets to actors dressed up carrying puppets. This man was Uncle Drosselmeyer. I prepped us all before we went on vacation - we listened to a Nutcracker book on tape many times (little S insisted we fast forward through the mouse king's battle with the nutcracker - too much violence for her :). Target presently has nutcrackers out that are the characters from the ballet. Little S loves them - we stop to look at them each time we're there. She fell in love with nutcrackers last Christmas and when I ask her what she wants for Christmas this year her response is, "Nutcrackers."
Watching the tarantula get its weekly feeding at the Natural History Museum (D and Little S are sitting on the right)

The National Zoo with cousins. It was a brisk, windy day but that didn't stop us. The heated gorilla house and reptile house were hits with the kids.

Big sisters holding their little sisters on Thanksgiving day.

Frolicking along the Potomac on the lawn of Mount Vernon. George and Martha had quite a view!

Mount Vernon was fantastic - much better than we were expecting. There was a camel on the lawn as part of the Christmas festivities - George often had exotic animals brought in to entertain his guests.

A great trip for our family. I have dozens more pictures to go through and now Christmas to tackle. (The trip put me way behind!)