national harbor

Saturday night we crammed all 9 of us into our van and drove across the bridge to National Harbor. We saw the big Christmas tree, played on the Awakening statue, rode the glass elevator to the top of the Gaylord, and saw Santa and some characters from Madagascar and Kung Fu Panda (from a distance...we didn't want to pay for the close-up experience).

plants and animals

We spent most of Thanksgiving weekend just hanging around the house, playing games, watching movies, eating, and raking leaves (the weather was SO nice). We ventured out a few times. Friday morning we went to the U.S. Botanic Garden to see their annual holiday display. I think this year's display might be my favorite so far. They have these awesome houses made to look like different animals (everything is made out of plant materials). After the Botanic Garden we made our way up to Capitol Hill for some lunch at We the Pizza. 

Thanksgiving.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. My brother and his family drove down from Vermont and it was so fun to have them here. The girls had a great time playing with James all weekend and were so sad to see them leave. The babies crawled around together and got yelled at a lot by the older kids for interfering.

We made enough food to last us all weekend. And beyond.

Pumpkin pie, chocolate cream pie, pumpkin mousse pie, and chocolate pecan pie bars.

We made a different version of our turkey cookies this year and, thanks to Pinterest, I know about five other people who made them as well.

Babies in the bath!

Video chat with the Wisconsin/Michigan crew.

Everyone in my family teamed up with their time zone buddy. The Utah people went to Arizona, Wisconsin went to Michigan (not technically the same time zone, but they should be), and the East coasters got together. We had a butter carving competition between time zones. I forgot to take pictures of ours but we attempted to carve Abe Lincoln and the Washington Monument out of butter. It didn't quite compare to Steph's butter carving a few years ago:

countdown.

The advents are up. The countdown is on. I added a few more to the mix this year thanks to a killer after Christmas sale last year. Bringing all of our Christmas stuff down from the attic was almost like Christmas morning for the kids. And me.

My love of advents started when I was a kid. We had a huge paper chain with nightly activities. We read a Christmas story every night as a family and burned down candles. I loved the feeling it created every night.

I made this matchbox tree a few years ago.

Avoided the m&m's this year. Too many spills.

I decided to try out the book advent this year. I wrapped up all the Christmas books we have plus a few from the library.

We open and read one each night. And burn our candles.

I scored this awesome bucket advent for less than $15 after Christmas last year.

The matchbox advent I made last year.

Another after Christmas sale find. We had a similar tree when I was a kid.

I made these stockings several years ago. They usually hang on a small tree, but I needed to get them out of Oliver's reach. I grabbed a tension rod I had and covered it with some Japanese washi tape. The stockings contain our activity for the day (watch a Christmas movie, go see lights, etc).

I have one more advent in the works, attempting to combine about four different things I saw on Pinterest...