Holiday

Well, it’s finally here…Christmas!

We celebrated early with my family, who came up for Sophie’s choir concert. All three girls got to open presents and we also made gingerbread houses (not pictured, because it was a total disaster).

Pre-present opening. The excitement was palpable! If this was a movie you would see the girls shaking.

And then actual Christmas came. Here’s the living room set up Christmas Eve (with the dining room table poking into the living room because it was so long).

And the girls Christmas morning before running into the living room. Sophie is shielding her eyes so she can’t see the presents. Amazingly they both slept in until about 7:30. And Santa, as he always does, put their stockings at the foot of their beds, so that they could occupy themselves for a bit before running downstairs (and in theory let mom and dad sleep longer – although this year we were up before them).

Just a few of the many gifts the girls got. Lauren is ready for ski season with a new helmet (not seen in this picture is a unicorn on the back), and new goggles, and a new book for Sophie, which she read entirely by herself over vacation (proud mom moment).

Later that day the entire local Rainer crew came over for dinner, as well as Zoe and Elliott from Dave’s side of the family. Here are a lot of the cousins: Lauren, Julia, Maithili, Kishore, Quinn, Ashwini, Sophie, and Carley.

The dinner table, which started in the dining room and went into the living room, sat all 24 of us, which Kishore at the head, of course! For the second year in a row Dave cooked the entire meal. As always, it was delicious! Everyone else brought desserts. Afterward we opening presents and relaxed.

The crew opening presents; Addison and Hayley with Ashwini

Dick and Suzy

Lydia, Zoe, and Elliott

Zoe and Elliott slept over because they were housesitting for us the following week while we were in the Florida Keys. Those two, along with Lydia, were AMAZING and helped us clean up the entire house that night, because we left the next morning at 7:30am to catch our flight. Phew!

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At the beginning of December we spend a weekend in DC with our friends the Townsends. It was a cold one! We got the first snow of the season and it was wet, but we tried to make the best of it and enjoy all of the holiday festivities around the city.

This picture about sums up the mood when we were outside. “Please let us go in and drink hot chocolate!” Lauren is only smiling in this picture because she was bribed with hot chocolate (good parenting). They had put up Christmas trees for each state and decorated them with items that were symbolic for the state. The girls are standing on front of Pennsylvania.

Much happier after they got their hot chocolate and cupcake rewards 😉
Lauren and Bella get along really well…

…which also means that Sophie felt left out, which is obvious in this picture. She was not thrilled to be forced into this picture. This was taken in front of one of the many trees (indoors!) around the city. Crystal planned our whole weekend and we ate at some fantastic restaurants – this was in a lobby attached to one of them.

The girls and Dave also went ice skating (their third time this year so far). I stayed outside long enough to take a few pictures and then found a nice spot in the warming hut 😉

Since we got engaged (15 years ago!!), Dave and I have been going to NYC for a weekend in December, but last year we just decided it was too much – too expensive, too crowded, full of cranky New Yorkers, etc. So when the Townsends suggested meeting in DC instead we decided to give it a go and it was great! The City was beautiful, clean, and not at all crowded. We ate fabulous food, enjoyed all of the festivities, and didn’t have to spend a fortune and wait in hours of lines. I think a December DC weekend will be our tradition moving forward.

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We spent Easter this year at the Sharp’s house. No Easter egg hunt – we’ll have to wait until next year for that. Sophie wore a dress that used to be mine. I’ll have to try and save it for her daughter!

“Aunt” Carol and “cousin” Shannon enjoyed spending time with little Sophia too.

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