The National Zoo

The Saturday after Christmas, we all went to the National Zoo in Washington DC.  Friday we had picked up Ellie's two friends from Logan, Harley and Maddy.  I'll post all about their visit later.

 With the Komodo Dragon

 Maddy, Harley, and Ellie

Following Elephant footprints.

Christmas

Christmas morning and we were all spoiled rotten!

We had a beautiful day of doing absolutely nothing but playing with our new presents, building Lego sets, and basking in the "animal warmth" of our family.

Ellie got a 3-man backpacking tent.  Drake got a backpacking backpack.  Dane got video games and another erector set, and Adelaide got an American Girl Horse, and books.

Mark got a 1-man tent for his scoutmaster duties, and then blew me away by giving me A LOOM!  I am still so stinking excited  I wove a scarf on Christmas day.  

Christmas Eve

Christmas came before I knew it, as usual.  It a really good thing Mark remembers to shop early!  We had a crazy as usual run up to the holiday.  But Christmas Eve finally came, and we got to spend it with  Brandt and Julie and 3 of their 4 boys: Christian, David, and Andrew.

First we went to the Air and Space Museum annex near our house, then out to eat at Cafe Rio.

We came back to our house for the making of Christmas cookies, and the nativity.

After the nativity, we had cheese fondue and lots of other yummy goodies.  When Brandt and Julie and Family left, the kids opened up their packages from Nana (Grandma Redd).  New PJs for everyone!