December

The annual things in our town - Friday night, Santa came through our neighborhood on a firetruck (don't know who is more excited...wait, it's Tate. She ended up rounding up neighbors about 45 minutes before we actually saw any firetruck action!). Friday was especially good because David and I refinanced just before the truck came through!

kids after chasing the truck through the neighborhood

Daisy reindeer fun - we're doing Project Elf, helping a local family have a better Christmas. There's that fine line of note writing with 6 year olds - "Have a Happy Holiday" is great. "We are sorry you are poor" is not so great. Our great leader (Great Leader - sounds very North Korean) headed that one off at the pass, though. Good call, Tara!

Our town's parade - our elementary school participated, and representatives from all the girl scout troops attended and passed out candy. Kids at the beginning of the parade had BAGS FULL of candy - seriously more than Halloween! Smith, being an alum, was looking forward to walking with his old school, and had to as David is out of town. The Assistant Principal asked if he'd help carry the lead banner! Very nice honor for Smith!

 These are just funny videos - Smith has been very into Parkour lately, and while we were waiting for David at the outlet mall the other day, they were practicing. Smith's getting there...and then there's Tate. Cracks me up.

And finally, after the parade Saturday, the kids and I went to DC for the afternoon. Smith wanted to do a museum but it was far too pretty a day to be inside, so we decided to do outdoor memorials instead. We saw Lincoln (who Tate kept calling George Lincoln Washington Monument), Vietnam Wall, World War II Memorial, Korean Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr (question - why did they choose the whitest of all white stones to represent him? Seems very odd to me, and perhaps a bit insulting??), drove by FDRs, then off to Union Station to have a Johnny Rockets lunch and walk around the building. What a beautiful building that is - it's where David and I had our wedding reception! I took the kids into B. Smith's to show them where we had our party. 

All in all, a GREAT day - from parade to DC to hanging out at home. Kids are ecstatic this time of year, as I'm swamped with work, which translate into a LOT of Wii, Minecraft, tv time. 'Tis the season!