Festival of Lights

As part of our Christmas tour this weekend, we went to the DC Temple Visitors Center to see the lights. It was FREEZING, but Andrew ran around so much that he ended up shedding layers.

US Botanical Gardens

This weekend we went to the Botanical Gardens in DC to check out the Christmas displays. They had a bunch of miniature fairy tale villages set up, with miniature trains running between displays and along the ceiling. It was crowded, but the kids loved every minute of it.

Santa

We made the big trip to Santa this week. Since Willa is scared of Santa, and generally doesn't even want to talk about toys for Christmas if they come from Santa, we were nervous. She decided not to be scared of the Big Guy, but still was not thrilled to be there.



The line for Santa wound through giant snow globes that the kids could wait in. Andrew was enchanted by the snow.



It was serious business.




Very serious.



Willa was scared of the snow globes, so she clung to my hair outside of the snow while we waited. (Don't judge me by how I look in this picture -- I hadn't planned to leave the house that day, and hadn't quite made it to the shower yet.)



They were both happy once we got home. Willa was so happy in her dress that she didn't want to take it off, so we got a few more pictures of her.

Ward Christmas Party

The party was great, they served dinner (of course Andrew only ate the dessert), but the highlight was Santa, who gave candy to all the kids. Willa of course was scared to death during most of the program, and we cuddled out in foyer while she asked if we could go home now.

But she finally worked up the nerve to get her own candy, and finally was happy on the ride home.

Gingerbread Houses

What do you get when you combine 8 kids under the age of 5 with candy and frosting? A gingerbread house party, of course! For the past two years our good friend Debbie has hosted a party at her house. We've had so much fun the last two years that we've promised each other to continue the tradition until the kids graduate from high school -- and maybe even after that.

Here's Andrew and one of his best friends, George. They were excellent at mushing up the packets of frosting.



Amazingly, Andrew actually put some of the candy on the house. Most of the candy and frosting ended up in his mouth.



See the long hallway? Most of the time the kids were racing up and down this hallway, sometimes with cars, often yelling nonsense words, but always with great gusto, and generally being led by Andrew.



The kids LOVE Debbie. Willa has thoroughly adopted her.



Speaking of Willa, check out these curls. Just like Cindy Brady, right?



Debbie's family is full of musicians, going all the way back to the first Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Her youngest daughter is in the high school band, and she and some of her friends brought their instruments and played Christmas carols for us. As soon as Willa caught sight of the instruments she started begging to play them. Literally begging, to the point where she was grabbing hold of the kids and trying to climb up their legs to get to the instruments.




Once they started playing Andrew turned into the bandmaster. He gave them tips, encouragement, told them to "take it from the top," and in general became the conductor/class clown.

Happy Thanksgiving

We kicked off thanksgiving again at Andrew's preschool. His class got to be the Indians at the feast, and you can see he's pretty excited about his "corn," which in reality was filled with candy. Definitely something to give thanks for.



Then we headed up my sister Brenda's house, where we had the best sage-butter-and-maple-syrup basted turkey ever, with hands down the BEST STUFFING IN THE WORLD. I will never have Thanksgiving without this stuffing ever again, if I can help it.



Willa didn't even wait for me to finish dishing things up on her plate, or cutting the meat into bites, or utensils, or any of those limiting factors. She grabbed hold of a chuck of turkey and just gnawed away.



Of course, not everyone was so thankful for our feast. I told Andrew that this was one day I wouldn't tell him what he had to eat, so he chose candied yams and Lucky Charms for his Thanksgiving dinner.



My sister has 2 dogs, which make for great fun for the kids when we visit. Sometimes too much fun. We kept finding Willa laying down with her blanket all around the house.

Goodbye, Old Friend

Last week the Sentra started running pretty rough -- well, rougher than normal -- so we took a deep breath and took it in to get checked out. Casey intentionally took it in on election day, knowing the news wasn't going to be good and wanting to get all the bad things in his life over with on the same day. The next morning when we all woke up in the brave new world of America's first Hawaiian president (not that I'm saying they're connected or anything) the mechanic called with The News. That's right, he told us it was time to decide whether or not to pull the plug. Take the old girl off life support. And although I didn't previously feel any emotional attachment to that car, suddenly I started feeling sad. No, "sad" is too strong a word. Nostalgic.

I mean, this car has been with me and Casey from the beginning. She's seen a lot of history. Look, there we are!



That was the day we got married. The decorations on the old girl were courtesy of Casey's siblings. They really went to town that day.




She moved across the country with us. Found our first apartment with us. See, here she was buried in the most snow we've seen since we moved here.



When we bought our first (and only) house.



When we brought Andrew home from the hospital. (And when Willa came home too, but we didn't have a picture of that day.)



She faithfully transported Casey nearly 100,000 miles to and from DC, although not always without incident. I remember one time when I hitched a ride with him when I was pregnant with Andrew, and as soon as he dropped me off I puked all over L Street. Then there was the day Casey was driving past Bolling Air Force Base during a torrential downpour. In our neck of the woods, when it rains, it POURS. Streets flood. Roads become impassible. Casey came upon a section of the road that appeared to be flooded, and there was a stalled Mercedes on the right side of the road to testify to the treacherous nature of the road. But, with great faith in his trusty partner, Casey floored it and made it through. (I'll let you decide if that's a testament to the warrior soul of the Sentra or a side to Casey you don't always see.) And on 9/11 Casey and the Sentra sat stranded together on the freeway between the Pentagon and National Airport, watching smoke pour from the Pentagon.

Of course, those hard miles of stop-and-go traffic did take their toll. She liked to throw off her hub caps every time she hit a pot hole -- and if you've ever driven in DC, you know there are one or two pot holes waiting to swallow your car whole. Casey went through 12 replacements in their years together.



Oh, the Sentra. She served us well. And look, she saved a reminder of our beginning together.



See that? On the driver's visor? Let's take a closer look.



It's confetti, from our first day together.




Hel-lo, New Friend.

Costume Day

Halloween just kicked off the fun of dressing up at our house. Andrew keeps begging for "costume play dates" with his friends.




See that orange mustache Willa has? We recently re-discovered Tang! That's right, the drink of astronauts. Apparently they still sell it. You can get it at Costco. We're all addicted now. Andrew thinks Casey is a magician for bringing the stuff home (incidentally, that's what happens when you send your husband to Costco for milk and bread -- you get Tang). But watch out, it stains your upper lip.

Trophy Day

Today was Andrew's first last soccer game of the season, or in other words, trophy day. From the moment Andrew learned he would be playing soccer this year he's been asking when he would get a trophy. (He's spent a fair amount of time admiring his dad's trophies in his bedroom at Grammie and Papa's house.)



Don't laugh at his face. The sun was really bright.



That's Coach Dan. He was great, and so patient with these spastic four-year-olds. When he gave each of the kids their trophy, he said something specific about each one of them. You know, something about how they scored goals, or improved their soccer skills, or were tough, aggressive, etc. Andrew spent most of his time at soccer running around in circles, but Coach Dan always got a hug. Just like when he got his trophy.



You can see where Andrew's real focus was at the end-of-year party. I was so afraid he was going to dive right into the cake without a fork.



That's right, Andrew. Be proud of your trophy. Your parents earned it.