More holiday fun!

As the previous posting indicated, this holiday season was filled with lots of opportunity to ENJOY some typical and not-typical holiday "things".

I LOVED being so close to the temple here and being able to attend their "Festival of Lights" a few times! The temple does an amazing job decorating the grounds in LIGHTS! (They even won "best lights" from an NBC4 voting contest this season!) But, every night for about 6 weeks they have different performers come and do a short holiday (vocal or instrumental) concert at 7 & 8 PM. Many people who aren't members come and attend, and it's just a wonderful evening--all for free! The visitor center has nativity scenes from around the world and is fully decorated for the season! I think I went to five or more concerts with different friends. Each one was a great way to end a long work day and feel the joy of the Christmas Spirit!

Moving on... next fun thing
was making a gingerbread TRAIN with the kids!
They did a GREAT job!
(They're in their pjs... hence naked stomachs.
The boys hate wearing shirts to bed!)

Another recommended "must do" during the holiday season in DC is to go to the Smithsonian Botanic Gardens and see their holiday train display and decorations. I knew the boys would love this... and we brought a friend as well! They had the monuments displayed as you walked into the gardens (see in picture below). The boys love being able to recognize the monuments and buildings!

Do you see the Washington monument
in the back? Jeremiah will point it out
whenever we see it in the car because
you can see it from almost anywhere in DC!

Then we entered the train display. They had all these "fairytale houses" set up and the trains would weave in and out of the different scenes.

The "Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe!"

The "7 Dwarfs House"

The "Elf Village"

They had about 20 scenes and the boys loved doing
the "seek and find" they had set up for the kids!
Of course, the trains were a big hit as well!

Moving on... on the way home we stopped to see Santa!
The local pharmacy had him visit.

A simple set-up, but Leo thought he was too old to be there. However, once he sat on Santa's lap he was excited to share his FULL list of what he wanted to the holiday :)

I just love their smiles!!! :)