Christmas Lights

Last night we went to the local botanical gardens to enjoy a little Christmas light festival. Other than being quite chilly, it was really enjoyable. Here are our attempts to capture the festival.

A maze of lights

Romantic gazebo

Our festive friend Kathi

Lots of model trains...by far the hit of the night!

Good Morning Sunshine

I usually don't make it in the shower until after Christian leaves for work. I shower quickly and Daniel usually entertains himself while I jump in. As I was finishing up in the shower I heard a lot of clanking. I poked my head out of the door and asked what was going on, to which Daniel replied "busted"! I didn't even know he knew that word.

I went on to investigate what had happened and found this...

Daniel had dumped our spare change cup out and was playing with the coins. I explained we would need to clean this up. I went to hang my towel up only to come back to this...

He remembered the clean up part! After I brushed my teeth I stumbled upon this...

Maybe a little Sesame Street while I shower would help.

A Great Friday

Yesterday turned out to be a great family day. We drove up to DC and I got to go do some work in the LDS Temple while Christian and Daniel went to the National Zoo which is just down the street.

After Daniel and Christian picked me up from the temple, we ate our picnic lunch in the car while Daniel told me all about the elephant taking a bath and how he got to touch a piece of dried out elephant dung. As I handed a piece of peanut butter sandwich back to Daniel, which he grabbed with his hand and stuck in his mouth (fingers included), I asked Christian if he had washed his hands...to which he gave a blank stare. Oh well!

Christian had an area meeting for work in the afternoon so Daniel and I went on a walking adventure. That evening, we went to NI's Christmas Party. We had such a great time talking with all the other NI people (maybe it is the Austin connection, but they almost feel like family). We had a fun dinner at Dave and Busters and afterwards a little friendly video game competition was organized. DDR is much much more difficult than I thought, but Christian did great at skee ball and shooting hoops (surprisingly). Overall, it was a great day!

Christmas Caroling

Last night for our family night, we decided to go Christmas caroling. We caroled at the homes of the families we visit teach and home teach (Mormon lingo for the people in the congregation you check in with on a frequent basis as a way of help and support). So in the Mormon world, we got three huge check marks in one night (family home evening, home teaching, and visiting teaching)! We also stopped by a couple of friends homes to try and spread some Christmas cheer. I don't know how much Christmas cheer our singing spread, but hopefully the treats we brought did some good. Here are a couple of pictures from the evening.

Daniel helping with the "clean-up"

On our way out!

Family Pictures

Saturday we tried again, for the fourth time, to take a nice family picture. Our failed attempts were

1. at an apple orchard
2. at Monticello
3. in Central Park

Finally, on Saturday, we got a couple good ones at a park close to our house. Here are some of my favorites.

The Poof

Both Christian and I have semi-naturally curly hair. After being married a couple of months we saw a little boy in the grocery store who had hair like this...

We joked that our kids hair would end up looking like that. Well, this is what we got...

We call it "The Poof". Even Daniel refers to his hair as "The Poof"!

Family Slumber Party

Last night I was supposed to watch another little boy for my friend who just had a baby, and Christian was going to help some older ladies move. As the evening approached, both service opportunities were canceled and we suddenly found ourselves with a completely open evening. So we had a family slumber party.

We rented "Meet the Robinsons" and started the evening eating pizza while watching the movie. We have only tried eating in our family room one other time with Daniel. We had pizza that time too, but Daniel stepped in the pizza in an attempt to escape from our friend Brent who was chasing him. This time, the pizza in the living room was much more successful.

Then we moved on to the popcorn and Twizzlers.

After the movie, we got out the blow up mattress and all the pillows and blankets we had for our slumber party. A pillow fight broke out.

After the wrestling, we built a tent to sleep in.

And finished off the evening with a story in the tent.

None of us ended up sleeping the night in the tent. We went back to our comfortable beds. There was no way we were going to be able to calm Daniel down enough in the tent to fall asleep. I think we made the most wonderful evening for a two year old boy. He was so excited about everything. In return, a fun evening for your child makes a wonderful evening for the parents.

Texas Tornado

Neither Christian nor I were born in Texas, but we both claim we are from Texas. Daniel is a Virginian by birth, but quickly got the nickname "Texas Tornado" once he started, crawling, walking, running, and exploring. So, we claim Daniel is a Texan too. Besides, don't you get dual citizenship when your parents are from one country but you were born in another?

Here are some of the latest and greatest pictures of Daniel (since my last post was completely narcissistic).

Busted!
I don't know how Daniel learned to open the gamma seal lids, but I caught him playing in the beans the other night.

Daniel had to stand on the couch to build this tower. We used all the Legos!

It snowed the other day, but it didn't stick for long.

Yes, those are my shoes!

Dusting is one of two of Daniel's chores.
The other chore is "helping" to take the garbage out.

4 Years Married and Still Dating

I love dating my husband! I think he is the most wonderful husband in the world! Friday night we went to Handel's "Messiah". We have gone every year since we have been married and it is one of my favorite traditions (maybe it is our only tradition so far since it seems we travel to a new place each holiday...it looks like traveling is another tradition).



I think Christmas is the most romantic time of the year and I love going to the symphony. I'm mathematically minded so I look at the whole experience this way:

Most Wonderful Husband + Most Romantic Time of Year + One of My Favorite Activities =
A Wonderful, Exceptional, and Memorable Evening

Instead of a "+" I think I should insert a "*" and the whole equation should be exponential for every year we have gone. In this case the whole thing would be raised to the 4!

I guess that is my nerdy way of explaining how much I enjoyed the evening. I enjoy the production more each year I see/hear it. This year I was particularly impressed with the production and the thoughts I had while listening.

It seems Christmas is padded with a lot of "cultural fluff". I enjoy a lot of the mystery and glamor of the "cultural fluff", but I've been a little frustrated recently with the fluff as well. Handel's "Messiah" is the only traditional/cultural thing I can think of that we do as a society that is purely about Jesus Christ. I enjoyed watching a choir full of different racial, gender, and age groups singing about Jesus Christ. I also looked out at the audience for a while a noticed what different walks of life were represented, but all had come to be uplifted by this musical testimony. I'm grateful for this Christmas tradition (even though it was originally produced around Easter).

One of the other thoughts I had was the awesomeness of the production. At the time Handel wrote the music for the lyrics (which are all biblical verses on the life of Jesus Christ), his career was failing and he was depressed. The music and lyrics combined express to me that Handel had felt the relief and hope available to us because of the life of Jesus Christ. Rumor is Handel himself was found crying after finishing the Hallelujah Chorus composition and when asked what was wrong stated

"I have seen the face of God."

I think it is difficult to express my feelings in words. They just can't capture all the emotion I feel. While listening to several of the pieces in the production, I was reminded and experienced again some of those same feelings I have about Jesus Christ. I am very grateful!

I'm afraid I am getting way to personal for a family blog!