longwood gardens: in the conservatory

Between Christmas and New Years we made a trip up to Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. The kids were incredibly excited about staying in a hotel and loved swimming in the pool. Oliver was a big fan of the water and loved splashing and climbing on the steps.

We have been to Longwood Gardens several times but never during Christmas. It was amazing. We arrived in the morning to beat the crowds that come in the evening for the lights. I'm so glad we did because there were so many people coming in as we were leaving. But I can only imagine how amazing everything is when it's illuminated. Hopefully we can make it back next year.

We started in the massive conservatory (a series of beautiful greenhouses) and were happy to be inside. It was a really cold and windy day. It was so beautiful and festive inside. Uniquely decorated trees and red and white flowers everywhere. So many lovely details. Elsa whined about being tired and hungry the entire time (but magically produced a crazy amount of energy when it was time to run around in the children's garden). Amelia, on the other hand, loved looking at all of the beautiful displays.

Believe it or not, this is my narrowed down selection of photos. And another post will be required to cover the grounds.

clemyjontri park

The day after Christmas we spent the afternoon at Clemyjontri Park. Aside from the major traffic jam we encountered on our way there (because there is always a traffic problem somewhere in Northern VA, even on a holiday), we had a great time being outside.

a fairy christmas.

A few days after Christmas (thanks to the incredibly slow service of the USPS) we got a fun box from my sister. My kids love getting spoiled by Aunt Steph and were thrilled when I took all the presents out and put them under the empty tree and called them in for "second Christmas."

She made an incredible fairy house for Amelia. (You can see just how excited/impressed Amelia is in the video below.) There are so many fun details on the house and fun things inside (a bookshelf with real miniature books, a table and chair, a little china set, and even little bottles of fairy dust). She also made an awesome fairy door for our house that matches our door. Ever since we saw the fairy doors in Ann Arbor we thought this would be such a fun thing to have.