Christmas at the White House

One night we headed over to the White House to see the Christmas trees. If you have never been to D.C. during the Christmas season, it really is impressive. Right next to the White House is the national Christmas tree that the President's family lights every year. Surrounding it are trees for every state and province, decorated by artists native to each state. It was really beautiful!

Nana, Pampa, Hannah and Harry

The guys were posing for a picture (because I was making them), and someone snuck into the shot last minute!

Pampa and his shadow for the week

Harry's favorite part! They had several trains set up all around the huge Christmas tree.

I was happy to see a nativity scene. It's nice to know that Jesus is still a part of something at our nation's capital!

Hannah and Harry Take D.C., part 1

One of our favorite places that we visited in D.C. was the Museum of Natural History. We spent most of the day there. I have to say, my kids were TROOPERS the whole week. We walked all over the place, and there was a very minimal amount of whining and complaining even though they were running on late nights and no naps. Of course, it did help to have 2 parents, 2 grandparents, and 2 uncles at their disposal.

They were so cute to watch while we were touring the museum. They almost ran from room to room, so excited to discover and explore as much as possible. The one thing that Harry said he wanted to do in D.C. was to see some dinosaurs. When we got to the big room that has the largest dinosaurs, he was so thrilled. Pampa held him for a while so that he could see even more (it was pretty crowded). So fun to see such sweet moments with grandparents!

On a side note, this trip convinced me that I definitely need to invest in something more than a point and shoot. I really like my camera, but it just doesn't cut it in certain situations. I hate to have so many picture perfect opportunities that pass me by! Any suggestions on what to look into?

Our Christmas

This is a VERY belated post about our Christmas break! We've had some craziness in our lives for the past month, but that is a whole other post (which I am sure I will get to eventually).

We spent Christmas at home this year, which was a nice change of pace. The more Ken travels with work, the more he likes to spend our holidays at home. It is very fun and sweet to begin our own family traditions centered around the birth of our Lord Jesus. I also feel like I SEE my kids more when we are at home during the holiday season. With all of the work it takes to pack up gifts and get everything together and then all of the fun stuff we do when we actually get to where we are going, I often feel that Christmas morning comes and goes and I haven't enjoyed my children. This year was different. We did a lot of the low key things like decorating the house, making gingerbread cookies, drinking hot chocolate around the fire, wrapping up in blankets and driving around to see Christmas lights, and going to our own church together. It was so enjoyable to just focus on my own little family as we celebrated God's greatest gift to us.

We also decided to just get the kids one nice gift each, instead of a ton of little things. I was so happy we decided to do that! The grandparents showered them with presents, so they had more than one gift to open, which was nice. Another plus was that we just didn't spend all that time and money on unnecessary things. I felt like we wasted a little less this year, which is always a good feeling! On the whole, it was a much simpler Christmas than we have ever done before, and it was very satisfying and rewarding. It left us time and energy to enjoy the true meaning of Christmas and each other.

After Christmas, we packed up the car and headed to Washington, D.C. where my family was gathered. My dad was speaking at a college kids' conference, so we all spent the week after Christmas together running around our nation's capital. Stay tuned, as there will be more pictures of Hannah's and Harry's adventures to come...