Gingerbread houses, Temple Lights, and more Christmas fun

We went downtown this past week to check out a Gingerbread House display at the Omni Hotel. There were lots of cute houses and it was a fun simple activity. It was not quite the event as what we attended last year but we had a good time. These were our favorites. 

This was my favorite, a cute Girls Scouts campsite. 

And Mark's, probably the best display. I love the cereal on the roof. 

Saturday we headed over to the Washington D.C. Temple to enjoy the Christmas lights.  We met up with some friends from our old ward, the Wooters and enjoyed all the lights and the 70 degree weather. We didn't even wear coats. Last year it was cold and rainy. This year it was so pleasant to walk around.  I love all the colors they use on the visitors center and then how they line the trees by the temple with all white lights.  So pretty! I look forward to going each year.

Waiting for our friends the Wooters.  

These two have been getting along so nicely lately. It has been awesome.  Since Jared has been in school he has been so grumpy/sensitive (tired) when he gets home from school so it is nice to see him playing with Lydia and not freaking out on her and me over super little things. 

Photo courtesy of Lydia it only took her 2 tries to not cut off Mark's head. 

Enjoying the Nativity. 

Last week was also busy with Cookie parties! I went to two different cookie parties one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.  One was an ornament exchange and was with mostly people from our old ward.  The second was an ugly sweater party (and we are going to a family one on Friday), white elephant party, and cookie exchange.  I don't really get the ugly Christmas sweater parties but had a good time anyway. I love the ornament exchanges they are really fun to me and it was nice to visit with some friends from last year. I am so glad I have met so many great people here in Charlottesville. We were supposed to go caroling with our ward on Thursday and have a hot chocolate bar after but Jared sadly got a really horrible cold.  He was so miserable.  I picked him up early from school Tuesday and he stayed home Wednesday and Thursday. I went ahead and taught preschool on Thursday and just had the basement door open to the upstairs so I Could hear him or help him if he needed it. He did fine but was super lonely up there.  I hoped he would rest but no such luck.  I was apprehensive to send him Friday but he ended up going and doing fine.  His poor nose was so red and raw.  It was so sad. I hope Lydia can avoid this cold.

Lydia and I also broke out some fun Christmas themed learning activities. She has learned how to write her name and some other letters too.  Her current favorite is A and we see them all over papers. 

Roll a Christmas tree with M&M ornaments, and candy cane kiss lowercase letter identifying. 

She also got her hair cut. I am not sure her bangs are quite even but maybe its just the slight layers the stylist put in them? I remember one day last year I was watching Samantha and I didn't have time to redo Lydia's hair after her nap before I picked up Sam so I left it down and when I got Sam she said, "Why isn't her hair done?" I do have very few pictures without her hair done at least a little bit.  I can't really believe she will be 4 years old in a little over a month! 

More Christmas fun to come this week! It's crazy that this is the last week before Christmas break, the last week of school for 2015!! 

Marmee came to town

My Mom came out to visit us back in November.  She was here for 2 weeks which included my birthday and Thanksgiving.  It was really great to have her here.  I have been waiting for some pictures from her but really want to be done with November so I will add them later. It was fun to have her meet our friends here, check out Jared's school, play with Jared and Lydia, see our new house, go shopping and see for herself how great Charlottesville is.  She had never been to the East Coast before so we took a trip over to the Washington D.C. temple and spent an afternoon in Washington D.C. which she loved.  We can't wait for her to come back.  I am so glad she could spend some time with us and especially with Jared and Lydia, I knew moving out here would lessen the time we got to see family so these visits are really special. Lydia loved waking up and going straight down to the basement to see Marmee.  They would read books and Marmee would let Lydia color on her phone which she loved. They took a few naps together and now Lydia always tells me she can't take a nap unless Marmee is here or Grandma Sue.

Since my Mom taught for a good 20+ years she was pretty excited to see Jared's school.  He gave us a tour and she got to meet his teacher Mrs. Franklin.

We stopped by Duck Donuts one morning which is always a delicious treat.  I love their donuts!

Jared had a birthday party to attend near downtown so she and I went to the "Historic" downtown mall for some shopping and she really liked the area. Charlottesville has a fun little downtown area with lots of "local" shops and restaurants. Its a closed off section so no traffic just pedestrians.  I hadn't spent much time shopping or just being down there as I always have Jared and Lydia with so it was fun to do it with her.

We also toured Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson which was fun. I toured it back in 2003 when I came out here with BYU Idaho but had not gone since we moved here.  That day was freezing cold like 35 degrees and rainy so we did not get to enjoy the grounds which is a shame because they are really nice but she did enjoy the house.

(Insert Monticello picture here) 

We also walked around UVA.  We stopped in the bookstore which was fun, another place I had not spent much time since it would not be as enjoyable with Jared and Lydia and then walked around "The Lawn" on Grounds. I didn't know this but my Mom is a big Poe fan and he attended UVA briefly so we stopped by his room in the Academic Village which was a fun bonus for her.  We also stopped by the piece of the Berlin Wall which I love seeing it.  It is such a fascinating time in history. After our tour of the grounds we headed over to the old Chapel for an acapella concert. This group Whoos in the Stairwell were super impressive.  They cover broadway songs and are super talented.  We both really enjoyed it, I can't wait to go to another concert.  Their tickets were only 3 dollars and it was such a fun night.  I love living in a college town just for events like this. 

(Insert UVA pictures here) 

My Mom was super excited to spend some time in DC.  We spent the morning at the temple where she kindly hung out with Jared and Lydia while Mark and I did sealing and then we drove over the National Mall.  We stopped by the Jefferson,Lincoln and Vietnam memorials and she loved them all.  We took a driving tour to see the White house and Capitol and all the pretty buildings.  We still had some daylight left so we headed over to Arlington National Cemetery which Mark also had never been to and go there in time to view the Changing of the Guard.  It was a long walk to get there and trying to keep Jared and Lydia silent and still during the presentation as slightly stressful but also completely worth it. I am so glad we could show my Mom some of the sites and can't wait to take her back.  There is so much to see in D.C.

Lincoln Memorial, looking towards Washington Monument. 

Changing of the Guard, "Silence and Respect"

While she was here Mark and I went away to Richmond for a night. Mark is always saying that what he wants the most is for him and I to go away by ourselves.  I don't know how many trips he has planned out just waiting for a chance for us to go. So I booked a hotel for a surprise and we had a great night away.  We went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory, toured the State Capitol (quite historic), Monument avenue in Richmond, and stopped in Short Pump a great shopping center that has nice stores and a Hobby Lobby, and then went out for Thai food for lunch.  It made Mark really happy and I am glad we could finally make it happen.

We loved having her visit!

Christmas fun thus far!

We decorated our house right after Thanksgiving. I know so many people love real Christmas trees but I love being able to pull out our Christmas tree and get it set up as soon as I want.  This year Mark and I set it up after Jared and Lydia went to bed on Thanksgiving and then we decorated the tree and house the next day when they got up.  It worked great. One catch, Mark was laying on the floor tightening the screws that make the tree stand up straight and I was rearranging the top branches (another plus: don't like how a section looks? Rearrange it.  I remember my dad using fishing wire and grafting in spare branches to fill in our trees growing up) and I stepped back to check my work and I tripped over Mark's leg and landed so hard on my left elbow.  I fell all the way to the ground . Ouch! Hardwood floors are really hard.  It was not a happy moment.  But we had a great time decorating it the next day. My Mom was still here and we were talking about rearranging ornaments.  My parents always let us hang ornaments and then when we went to bed my Mom rearranged them to make it look better/balanced/safe.  She would ask my Dad if he wanted to move any and he would decline.  Turns out he then rearranged the ornaments after my Mom went to bed.  I am not that patient and found myself moving some as Jared and Lydia moved on to the next one they wanted to hang.  I really would like to start choosing a "yearly family theme ornament"and then ordering three of them so Jared and Lydia can have a box of ornaments to take with them when they move away.  If I can't think of a good theme for the year I want to at least buy three of one ornament so we can all have some matching ones.  Or maybe I should just let them pick one at the end of each Christmas season when they go on sale and then they can take them... I want to start something because why not have one more tradition? We had really nice weather the day after Thanksgiving so Mark and I (Mostly Mark) set up our outdoor lights.  We went back and forth between the large classic bulbs or white icicle lights and went with the icicles.  They look great. Mark had to climb on the roof to finish up but he was fine and we found out that we don't have any outlets on the front side of our house which seems odd but we made it work.  I noticed last year the people in Virginia love to hang wreaths on their windows and put candles in the windows too. We did not get wreaths, maybe at an after Christmas sale, but I did get some candles and am happy to have them in our windows.  It was fun to set up our Christmas decorations in our new house.  I love our fireplace mantel so much!  I love that I can decorate it all year long.  We got our Christmas cards sent out and we have bought all of our presents and have them wrapped under the tree, we are ready. It is so fun to have everything done so now we can enjoy this magical fun season and do some fun activities.

Cute Christmas pajamas from Marmee.  

Lydia loves that hers came with a TuTu.  When we sing songs before bed each night she loves to twirl around. If she is ever not wearing her TuTu she has to run as fast as she can and get it. I would love to start her in a dance class but it seems quite pricey. 

So far we have driven through Staunton's decorated park (Staunton is about 45 minutes from Charlottesville), made gingerbread houses at the Library, participated in the annual Charlottesville Toy Lift, donated a book to the library giving tree, made sugar cone Christmas trees and attended a Christmas parade. Tomorrow we are going to check out a gingerbread village display downtown and later this week we are going caroling with our ward. I love all the fun activities there are to do in December.

While my Mom was here we drove up to Staunton to see the holiday display at a big park there.  Families and community groups/churches set up Christmas displays in a big park and you can walk or drive around the park to check them out.  It was not a huge display but it was cute and a fun way to start off the holiday season.  Earlier that day we had decorated our house and driving through the park was a perfect way to end the day.  My Mom really enjoyed it too.

Super awesome that the library sets all this up for free! I didn't even have to assemble the house.

Reason 76 that I heart libraries! 

We made these in preschool.  They were super fun and easy. 

Houses are nice, trees are smart. 

We did the toy lift last year and just drove through the drop off line.  It was fun to have people cheer for us and wish us Merry Christmas. The volunteers were little less peppy this year but it was fun.  We parked the car and got out to walk around this time and check out what was there. Jared and Lydia saw a bouncy house when we drove though the drop off so there was a small chance we would leave without checking out.  They bounced around, talked with Santa, and got ballon animals. It is a great chance to talk about how blessed we are and how important it is to find ways to help others.

We had originally planned to drive down to Williamsburg and check our their parade, go to Jamestown and then go to a lighted boat parade (which sounded amazing!) but as I was looking up distances and times I just started to question why we were doing this? It would have been fun sure but it was a lot of driving and when the sun goes down it is really cold by water!  So we decided to skip it.  We are driving to the temple next Saturday (4 hours in a car total) and then on the 21st we are going down to Williamsburg to go to Christmas Town at Bush gardens (again 4 hours in a car) and I just thought it was too much. Mark was more than happy to skip it. He is such a good sport with my outings. So instead we enjoyed a nice morning at home then headed over to RiverView Park to ride bikes and play.  I went on a nice 1.5 mile run and we all had a great time.  That evening we drove to Waynesboro (40 minutes away) and enjoyed their Christmas parade.  It was great and really reminded me of the Christmas parade my family went to in Yuba City growing up.  I especially liked that it was at night.  Charlottesville and other places seem to do their parades in the morning which is weird to me.  For the most part it was a great outing. We had packed snacks and grabbed a package of glow sticks to enjoy at the parade.  Once we sat down a man walked by selling these fancy light up sticks and Jared wanted one so bad.  They were very cool but it was so frustrating that he let his grumpy attitude interfere with enjoying the parade.  The little glow sticks we brought were not good enough for him.  Not gonna lie, it really bugged me that he could not let it go.  I think we will go the parade again next year and tell Jared to bring some of his own money if he has to have a fancy light up stick to have a good attitude. It did improve once he started getting some candy canes.

Lydia loved every minute of the parade and worked so hard to try to cheer Jared up. Such a sweetheart. She loved wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, dancing around and collecting candy canes.

This float was so cute.  They turned the car into the train engine and their trailer into a train car.

Santa!

We are enjoying our 25 days of Christ ornaments and feeling that special Christmas spirit!

Thanksgiving Day

We had a great Thanksgiving. My Mom was here to spend Thanksgiving with us which was nice.  She Jared and Lydia all got colds which was a bummer but we had a nice day.  It started with a Turkey Trot over in Earlysville.  I love running a 5K Thanksgiving morning.  This year I signed Jared up for the kids 1/2 mile and he did great.  Mark ran it with him and after he did it Jared was tired but happy. I think he will want to do it each year.  Getting a medal and shirt helped.  He wasn't feeling great due to his cold but he was a good sport.  He and Mark cheered me on as I ran the 5K with my good friend Laura. I had never run a race with someone before and it was so much more enjoyable. I am so glad we ran together.  She is great.  I felt really good when I finished.  This run has quite a few hills which I don't love but I was able to run the whole course and the hills were fine for me. I am so glad I did it.

We had all the traditional foods and everything turned out great. We made mashed potatoes from America's Test Kitchen (a recipe I found about from Laura, amazing mashed potatoes!!) turkey, stuffing, gravy, rolls, gravy, corn and green bean casserole. I made a pear pie and the crust turned out so well. The pears sadly were not as ripe as I would have preferred but it was still good. It has taken me a good while to be able to make decent crusts and its really fun now when the turn out. We did some fun learning times as we were preparing the food which I always enjoy and I think Jared and Lydia do too.

I found this fun dip online: cream cheese, cool whip, pure pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. We dipped apples, pretzels, graham crackers, and nilla wafers. So good.

Roll a turkey always a favorite.

Playing with the leftover pie crust. No need for play-doh that day! 

Lydia really wasn't feeling well so she took a long nap so we didn't get to hang out as much. 

All month long Jared and Lydia have been filling in our thankful tree. I love doing one of these each  November. We also made fun art projects and "indian" outfits. 

Jared's Leaves: He wrote all his leaves this year for the first time which was fun. 

Parents, lobster, blanket, (#1 spot) trees, projects, school, house, food, clothes, Charlottesville, FHE, ice cream, bed, friends Earth, party, LEGOS, toys. the spirit, shoes, stories, furniture, body.

Lydia's Leaves: fruit, music, food (specifically dinner), family time, park, play places (like the mall), my room, the spirit, temple, Thanksgiving, dates, preschool, turkey. decorations, painting, blanket, Marmee, cars, piano, nice weather, birthdays, doing nice things for others, mom and dad, painting, and naps with Marmee 

Birthday fun

The week before my birthday I met up with some friends for cupcakes downtown.  I did this last year and it was a fun way to celebrate.  I am pretty sure it will be happening each year.  I tried to find a different location that was closer to our house but all the bakery places close by like 3:00 on Saturdays so it didn't quite work out but it was not a big deal to go back to Sweethaus.  They have great cupcakes.  We had fun visiting. I am so lucky to have some great friends here.

We also celebrated at home with cake.  Once upon a time in Colorado a friend got a birthday cake from Sams Club and it was amazing.  So last year Mark picked one up for me.  Well since Costco opened here we gave up our Sams club membership and the only thing I miss is their cake for my birthday.  We decided to try out Costco's cake and while it was good it was not nearly as good as Sams so that is one thing that Sam's has over Costco but I am pretty sure it is the only thing.

This birthday was extra fun because my Mom was here to celebrate with me.  She took me out shopping on Saturday and we had a great time.  It's funny because growing up my Mom was always this all day ultimate shopper.  She and my Grammie (her mom) could go for hours!  After shopping with me for quite a few hours we got in the car and she turned to me and said, "you have done it you can now out-shop me."  Sad but true.  It was fun to go out and do it together.

A few weeks ago Mark and I had an in home date night where we made Amazon wish lists.  It was actually really fun and very helpful. So Mark had all kinds of things to choose from for my birthday.  The funny thing is he picked a gift that my friend Laura got for me too.  A few weeks before my birthday Laura and I met up and she had brought some popcorn as a snack.  I could tell she had used an air popper and I mentioned that I had been wanting to get one for a long time.  So she got me one for my birthday.  She is that great that she remembered a random thing like that and acted on it.  Mark was slightly put out that she beat him to it.  We have been enjoying ever since.  Mark did get me another gift I really wanted which was this awesome puzzle portfolio. I love puzzles but can't stand have them all over our table.  My sister Susanna had this puzzle profession and I knew I wanted one. Mark remembered and got it for me.  We tried it out while my mom was here and it was great. The board was smaller than I would have liked but really they could not have made it much bigger.  You can sort your pieces and then when you have to stop (its so addicting to me) you close it up and slide it away.  Genius!  I so love puzzles! They are so relaxing to me.

Fresh Popcorn and a great new puzzle. 

It was a really nice birthday and I feel exactly the same as I did last year. It will be interesting to see at what point I actually feel older.