Christmas 2011 was a wonderful flurry of fun, family, festivities, and food. Oh yeah, and presents.
It started with Nancy and Katie going to see some impressive ice sculptures at National Harbor (across the river in Maryland). The sculptures were of the characters from Madagascar as well as more traditional Christmas themes. The sculptures are kept in a tent that maintains a frigid temp of 5 degrees! Visitors are given special coats to wear. I guess they don't think our coats in D.C. are up to the challenge. They're probably right. The artists used over 2 million pounds of ice to create the sculptures. And at the end is a giant ice slide which Katie loved and went down again and again.
The next day Grammy came to town. Aunt Sue came over to bake cookies with Nancy and Katie. Katie was a big help. That night we drove around to look at some of the crazy Christmas lights around Alexandria and ventured into DC for a quick tour of the Capital tree and the White House tree. The White House tree is significantly shorter this year because the old tall one was damaged in a storm earlier in the year.
On Christmas Eve we went to National Harbor to watch the water skiing Santa along with his water skiing elves, reindeer, and even the Grinch. We went last year too and Katie loved it. Thankfully this year was significantly warmer.
Then, luckily, Santa paid us a visit and left great presents. We were also fortunate to get lots of great presents from our families too. Katie was very excited and couldn't wait to open them. She even helped Peter open most of his too! He needed the help too because he was too young to grasp the concept of unwrapping presents. He'd usually tear off a handful of wrapping paper and then crawl away giggling.
After we opened presents, we went to Sue and John's house for a delicious ham lunch/dinner and opened more presents. Then we drove home and went right to bed.
This Christmas season was an interesting one for Katie. At times we thought she seemed less excited about Christmas than last year but I think she just had a different way of expressing it. She would sing the words to Christmas carols and amaze us by knowing more lyrics than we did. She watched all the great Christmas shows on t.v., read all her Christmas books, and excitedly updated the advent calendars each day. But at times she seemed a little more composed or subdued than we expected. Maybe she, dare I say, was growing up? Or maybe she was just exhausted. Either way, her excitement was definitely not in doubt on Christmas morning when she ran down the stairs and began excitedly opening her presents.
She also delighted us with some wonderful nuggets of Christmas wisdom including:
Thanks to everyone for making our Christmas so special. We enjoyed spending time with the family we could and missed the ones we couldn't. Merry Christmas!
All the photos are here.
Santa sculpted from ice.
Katie wearing one of the super-warm jackets for the frigid ice tent.
Katie on the ice slide.
The Three Wise Men look ghostly in ice.
Katie helping with the cookies.
Grammy reads her a Christmas story.
Some of Santa's water skiing reindeer.
Santa being led by Rudolph.
Our Sweetie.
Peter falling asleep during Christmas Mass.
One last Christmas story before bedtime on Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning! Katie waits patiently at the top of the stairs.
Peter gets some help unwrapping his presents.
Katie was very helpful with distributing the gifts from under the tree.
Opening presents with Grammy.
Peter rips open one of his presents.
The wind chimes were a big hit with Peter.
Peter in his Christmas outfit, looking out the window at Sue and John's house.
Opening presents at Sue and John's house.
Katie and Peter forecheck strongly against Mommy in air hockey.
Katie got a surprise phone call from Santa on Christmas Eve. He also made her the video below.
It started with Nancy and Katie going to see some impressive ice sculptures at National Harbor (across the river in Maryland). The sculptures were of the characters from Madagascar as well as more traditional Christmas themes. The sculptures are kept in a tent that maintains a frigid temp of 5 degrees! Visitors are given special coats to wear. I guess they don't think our coats in D.C. are up to the challenge. They're probably right. The artists used over 2 million pounds of ice to create the sculptures. And at the end is a giant ice slide which Katie loved and went down again and again.
The next day Grammy came to town. Aunt Sue came over to bake cookies with Nancy and Katie. Katie was a big help. That night we drove around to look at some of the crazy Christmas lights around Alexandria and ventured into DC for a quick tour of the Capital tree and the White House tree. The White House tree is significantly shorter this year because the old tall one was damaged in a storm earlier in the year.
On Christmas Eve we went to National Harbor to watch the water skiing Santa along with his water skiing elves, reindeer, and even the Grinch. We went last year too and Katie loved it. Thankfully this year was significantly warmer.
Then, luckily, Santa paid us a visit and left great presents. We were also fortunate to get lots of great presents from our families too. Katie was very excited and couldn't wait to open them. She even helped Peter open most of his too! He needed the help too because he was too young to grasp the concept of unwrapping presents. He'd usually tear off a handful of wrapping paper and then crawl away giggling.
After we opened presents, we went to Sue and John's house for a delicious ham lunch/dinner and opened more presents. Then we drove home and went right to bed.
This Christmas season was an interesting one for Katie. At times we thought she seemed less excited about Christmas than last year but I think she just had a different way of expressing it. She would sing the words to Christmas carols and amaze us by knowing more lyrics than we did. She watched all the great Christmas shows on t.v., read all her Christmas books, and excitedly updated the advent calendars each day. But at times she seemed a little more composed or subdued than we expected. Maybe she, dare I say, was growing up? Or maybe she was just exhausted. Either way, her excitement was definitely not in doubt on Christmas morning when she ran down the stairs and began excitedly opening her presents.
She also delighted us with some wonderful nuggets of Christmas wisdom including:
- "You get what you get and you don't get upset." -- Katie's advice on the proper attitude for receiving presents (she said she learned it from her music teacher).
- "Christmas is about giving and sharing." -- Katie's reason for the season which she reminded us often, except when she was reminding us how much she wanted a walking puppy.
Thanks to everyone for making our Christmas so special. We enjoyed spending time with the family we could and missed the ones we couldn't. Merry Christmas!
All the photos are here.
Santa sculpted from ice.
Katie wearing one of the super-warm jackets for the frigid ice tent.
Katie on the ice slide.
The Three Wise Men look ghostly in ice.
Katie helping with the cookies.
Grammy reads her a Christmas story.
Some of Santa's water skiing reindeer.
Santa being led by Rudolph.
Our Sweetie.
Peter falling asleep during Christmas Mass.
One last Christmas story before bedtime on Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning! Katie waits patiently at the top of the stairs.
Peter gets some help unwrapping his presents.
Katie was very helpful with distributing the gifts from under the tree.
Opening presents with Grammy.
Peter rips open one of his presents.
The wind chimes were a big hit with Peter.
Peter in his Christmas outfit, looking out the window at Sue and John's house.
Opening presents at Sue and John's house.
Katie and Peter forecheck strongly against Mommy in air hockey.
Katie got a surprise phone call from Santa on Christmas Eve. He also made her the video below.
