Christmas in the Capital

Since returning from Bama, we've had tons of Christmas fun in DC, too! Beginning with grocery shopping for a Christmas dinner for a family in need. We'll have to make this a tradition because the conversations we had with Judah about how the Lord rejoices when we give to others in need were priceless...not to mention he loved the shopping!

Actually, he's becoming quite the little helper. Here's a pic of him just this week from a Whole Foods outing.

And Christmas morning did not disappoint in our little condo with our little family. Jeff and I awoke early, anticipating our little man's excitement.

And excited he was!

We were then in disbelief that he agreed to eat breakfast first and WAIT to open his gifts. Maybe it's because breakfast consisted of PANCAKES...in the form of RUDOLPH!

As you can see, he thought this was hilarious :-)

And finally, it's present time! Little stinker knew what this was simply by the shape of the box. From the looks of Allie's face, it seems that she knew what it was too...another musical instrument to annoy her.

It's a GUITAR! or "tar" as Judah affectionately calls it. He's been wanting one forever.

Later, Jeff tried to explain to Judah the function of the "pitch pipe." Judah loved the noise and then began to pull a Willie Nelson....

Shortly following, he ditched the guitar all together and made a harmonica or sorts out of the pitch pipe.

After some gift opening, it was finally time to see what Santa brought. I'm amazed that this was our last activity on Christmas morning. I have a feeling this won't be the case in years to come. Judah asked for two things from Santa...goggles (he's dreaming of summertime and the pool) and a cowboy outfit. And Santa did not disappoint...

Santa even brought some goggles to Mommy ;)

And although not the best of his performances, I did manage to capture one of my little cowboy's debut songs.

We spent Christmas evening with his best bud's (Gabriel's) family. We are incredibly blessed by friends here who treat us like family. When far away from your biological families, it's so wonderful to be surrounded by dear friends. We had a lovely time but I hardly took any pics due to the boys literally running around all night.

I did manage to get a pretty cute video of the family dance party, however.

During the holidays, we also visited the National Botanic Gardens. If you are ever in the area, you should definitely make this one of your tour destinations.

***Side note~Judah has an uncanny ability to know his way around our city. Often when I think he's not paying attention in the car, he tells me that we're near his school, church, or other famous parts of DC. On the way to the Botanic Gardens, he knew without us saying anything that we were near the National Mall and other landmarks. He then genuinely asks us if we could go to visit Obama at the White House, almost immediately preceding us passing the White House. When we replied, "Maybe another day," he seemed quite disappointed that we had not been invited to Christmas with the Obama's :-)***

Anyways, the gardens are beautiful, with plenty of indoor exhibits. As you can see, during the holiday season it is exceptionally beautiful with Christmas tress and poinsettias....

The best, however, was the miniature DC monuments made of bark, sticks, acorns and other natural elements. I was mesmerized with how pretty and intricate they were.

And so was Judah...

There was a magical, whimsical, fairy-like train exhibit for the kiddos (well, and the adults :-), too....again, all made from natural elements.

Well, that's all for now folks...

Stay tuned to see how we rang in the New Year!