Lots of Lights! (and ICE!)

The holiday fun has been in full swing! Two weeks ago we went to Zoo Lights at the National Zoo. It was a great night of twinkling lights and a definite feeling of winter chill. We took our nephew Pete with us so we were a clan o' five for the night. The metro ride was easy and there was even a double decker bus that we could take (for free!) up the road to the zoo.  Unfortunately the zoo was a rather popular spot, so the traffic was so bad trying to go the 0.25 of a mile up the road to the entrance we sat on the top of the bus for a good 15 minutes to go only a few hundred yards. We eventually jumped off the bus at a stoplight and walked the rest of the way in :)

Although it was pretty crowded, with long lines for the carousel and beer in an LED sparkling light cup, we participated in both. But most of the fun really was just walking through the zoo at night with all the lights!

Then last weekend on a whim we decided to leave the house for the night and spend the night down at the DC harbor at the gaylord hotel for their christmas-themed-over-the-topness that included a tent kept to 9 degrees and filled with the most incredible ice sculptures and a 2 story high ice slide.  It was so cold inside that they gave you extra blue parkas to wear while you were there.. not the most flattering but the extra warmth was welcome!

There was also a Christmas village with a special build-a-bear section, indoor carousel and spinning tea cups.  Evie decided to spend her allowance/savings on a build-a-Eevee and I bought Izzy a build-a-pikachu because she doesn't have an allowance and she has been doing such a great job in helping me clean the house.

Patrick may look like he is having fun... but the girls spun him so relentlessly that he felt ill for almost an hour afterward.

The hotel includes a massive atrium where every hour on the hour after 6 pm there is a beliagio-esque lights and water fountain show. Come to think of it the whole thing felt very vegasy (I am on a role for the made up words here!) We also took full advantage of our resort fee and went for a swim in the indoor pool after dinner, and then proceeded to indulge in what now (for better or for worse) has become a Christmas tradition... talking animal (mostly of the dog sort) Christmas movies.... The evening was taken up by Santa Claws and the morning by Santa Paws... and with just one room, there was no place for me to hide (at least not at night... the next morning I convinced Evie to go back into the Ice tent at the special time just for hotel guests... which allowed me to take more pictures of the sculptures.

Once we checked out we had planned to just head straight back to our house, but the line in the parking garage was so long that we decided instead to go check out the harbor a bit. It was all very new, with little shops and mostly hotels. My favorite part was some pretty cool sculptures....

The last stop on the Christmas of lights fun will be a trip to Winterhaven when we are back in Tucson next week!

Performers

In the past two weeks both Genevieve and Isadora have provided fabulous Christmastime performances. Since our move (pretty literally given that the day after they arrived she had an audition) Evie has been singing soprano with the Strathmore Children's Chorus. For the winter concert she (and the rest of the Training Chorus) sang three songs, This Little Light of Mine, First Flakes and Velvet Shoes. Her favorite, however, was the song that was sang with over 300 voices at the end of the concert - Hallelujah Chorus. We've been working a bit on another Hallelujah too, the kind written by Leonard Cohen, and once that is performance ready we'll share it :) Unfortunately cameras and recording phones were not allowed in the theater for her songs...

Izzy's performance was closer to home. For about 6 weeks now she has been taking piano lessons with Miss Emily and for the past 3 weeks they have been preparing a secret song for her to play for us.  Izzy was so into the secrecy that we all had to be downstairs whenever she had a lesson or when she practiced. She has a fantastic rapport with her teacher and is surprisingly motivated to practice (for 4-5 minutes at a time mind you). Because cameras and video recording were allowed in the theater here is the performance itself:

Out and about in November...

 This is totally unintentionally becoming a once-a-month update.  I need to get back on the regular blogging wagon for sure! Until that happens, once a month will have to do :)

For a good part of November we were all here there and everywhere. During the weekend before the election we made a Sunday afternoon trip to the zoo. Where numerous selfies and not-selfies were taken with metal animals... and a few actual animals were viewed as well.  Perhaps the best viewing of the trip were the otters, which we watched for a good 15 minutes trot from one place to another and "talk" to each other, something I don't think I ever knew before that they did.

The week of the election the girls were in Tucson with Patrick, so I went out with a few friends, one of whom lives a short walk from this view.....

Just days after everyone came back from AZ, I was on a plane to FL for the week for a conference.  The conference was a great break from DC and a nice opportunity to get to see my WRRC colleagues again (although most of them I still talk to almost weekly). At one of the evening receptions they had a person doing free caricatures so my friend Ashley and I braved the pen....

The next weekend Patrick was back off to Tucson for a few days, so we took him to the airport and then spent the day in Baltimore. A month or so ago back we had promised Genevieve that we would "one day" take her to the Ripley's Believe it or Not at the harbor. Being the elephant she is, she reminded me of this and requested that we (or rather I) make good on our promise. It was about what you would expect... probably not worth the close to $60 investment... and parts of it just downright terrified poor Izzy.  The kaleidoscope room was, however, a hit with everyone.

It was quite beautiful outside, about 60 degrees, so we figured a little ice-skating would be a good post-Ripley's experience. The rink was a bit melty, but the girls and I had a great time and went around and around for over an hour. Izzy fell quite a bit, but I was very impressed with her bravery and attitude; every time she fell she just got right back up again.

Then came Thanksgiving and the post-Thanksgiving days of sloth :) To prep for the large intake of food Vivian and Patrick ran in the Kensington Turkey Chase, a 10k tradition that they have been running (off and on) since they were kids. Then mashed potatoes and cucumber salad in hand we hopped on the metro and had Thanksgiving at Mimi's house this year.

 To relax from a busy pre-Thanksgiving few weeks Vivian and I took Genevieve out for the first time to get her nails done. I think she (mostly) enjoyed it.

What we all definitely enjoyed was getting "mood" nail polish that changes colors when you are hot or cold!! Then that night we went out for indian food with Vivian and the nephews and then they introduced us to one of their favorite Rockville places... Duck Donuts, where you assemble your own doughnut and can load it up with all sorts of interesting things (including bacon!)

The collection of personalized donuts.  Sprinkles were the common theme... fortunately bacon did not enter into the picture.