Another early Christmas gift

Aunt Llew came to visit for Christmas and she brought Nathan's Christmas gift with her. Nathan begged and begged to stay up late to come to the airport to pick her up. David and I decided to let him. It was love at first lick!

A dream day

Grandma Rygmyr sent her Christmas gift for the kids a little early so we took a family trip to Build-A-Bear! They were having a sale so each of the kids were able to get two bears. The kids were over the moon! Nathan chose two Pokemon, Charmander and Squirtle. AJ choose a Pokemon, Picachu and a MLP, Tempest Shadow (aka Fizzle Pop Berry Twist). And Tessa chose two My Little Ponys, Rainbow Dash and Trixie Lulamoon.
The kids had an awesome time and they were so happy with the gift! Thank you Grandma! You hit a home run!

Wreaths across America

We volunteered to participate in the Wreaths across America at Arlington National Cemetery. The kids and I (David was helping a family move) drove what should have been a 30 minutes drive to Arlington but with the volunteer traffic it too us 2 1/2 hours to get there. We ended up parking at Fort Myer and walking in the  chapel gate. We found 3 trucks and they were all out of wreaths. We found a couple that had still had their wreaths and I asked them if we could take a picture with one of their wreaths and they told us we could have it. Yay! We walked around for a bit trying to find a grave to place it on and finally found a grave with two people buried there and only one wreath, so we placed ours there. The kids were happy to find somewhere to put it. It was a great experience for all of us. I hope we get another chance to do it again!

Snow angel

We had a snow day! The kids are so happy, but it is so cold they don't want to be out in it for to long.

Meeting Santa

We had a few opportunities to meet Santa this year. We met him at the NEX, USUSSC and or Ward Christmas party. Nathan say with the Santa at the NEX very briefly but was uninterested in the other Santa sightings. I think he is growing out of that phase.
The Santa at the spouses club had the whole Grinch story memorized. It was very impressive. That Santa was also very adamant that we take very upside pictures.

Festival of lights

After scouts one night I took Nathan and two of his friends over to the temple to see the Christmas lights. They were spectacular! It was so beautiful, such a sight to see. Inside in the visitor center, they had Christmas trees decorated from different groups around DC and a Nativity (creche) display with nativities from all over the world.
As a family we went back on a Sunday night to see the U.S. Army brass band perform in the visitors center, and another night after our Ward Christmas party. I love that we are so close to the temple that we can go see it so often!

National Capitol Region Military Medicine Ball

A few friends invited us to go to the NCR medical ball with the at Ft. Belvoir and, since we were going to miss out on the fancy Christmas party at the 4th this year, we decided to go. We had a lot of fun. We carpooled with John and McKenzie Sommerfeldt and Mitchell Bodily and his date. It was a great event, the keynote speaker was the US surgeon general. After the ball, we stopped at Burger, Tap and Shake to get milkshakes and watch the last part of the Clemson ACC champion game (yay, they won!). The Butterfinger, Twix and Snickers shake (BTS) was amazing!