New Year's Eve

This year, we continued our annual tradition of celebrating New Year's Eve with our friends.  We headed over to the Shafer's house and spent the evening with the Shafers, Uncle John, Captain Rick, Aunt Beth, Uncle Mike, and Abby!!

The kids even found a time to facetime with the Levy kiddos in AZ. 

And then we all posed for some photos!!  These kiddos are so cute!!

It was a night filled with delicious foods, a LOT of laughs, noise makers, and plenty of champagne.  We did not get much sleep, since we wanted to pack in as much fun as possible in one evening, but it was all worth it.  This is by far one of our favorite traditions and I look forward to continuing this as the kids grow up!!

Christmas 2017

This year, we went home for the holidays.  We stayed with Meemaw and Grandpa for Xmas Eve and then headed over to Grammy and Grumpa's for Xmas day.

But first, we had some small celebrations around our own house.  As usual, Chad and I decorated the house on the night of November 30th, so the kids would wake up to a Xmas house on December 1st.  Lauren and Charlie were so excited to see their individual trees when they woke up!

           

The kids got to go visit Santa Claus.  They both did a wonderful job of letting him know what gifts they were hoping to receive.  I wasn't sure if Charlie would talk, but he did and once he started, he wouldn't stop!  ha ha ha

                               

 Chad did a great job decorating the outside of the house.  I am still holding out hope that those blue lights will die and I can switch up the color scheme, but they are still kicking.  Lauren adores the blue snowflake lights above the garage, so they will be sticking around for a while.

Chad also set up the holiday train set downstairs in the basement.  The kids love watching the trains move, pointing out the different decorations, and loading the logs onto the back of one of the train cars.  Lauren has even become a master train engineer.  She can handle the controls all by herself.

Finally, there was plenty of Gluwein for the adults and the kids made a Gingerbread house.  We had some problems with the roof collapsing and it took extreme patience, but they got it done.  Next year, I need to remember to assemble the house at least an hour or two before the kids want to decorate.  That will definitely save us some frustrations!

           

Back to Christmas!  The night before heading to Salisbury, Chad and I let the kids open up their own gifts.  It did not make sense to bring all of these gifts to be opened and then bring them all back home again after the holidays. 

They were so excited.  Lauren got a walkie talkie set, a fingerling monkey, an Atari set, and Minecraft games on her iPad.  Charlie got transformers, legos, and a fingerling monkey.

On Christmas Eve, we opened stockings (an annual Pali tradition), ate a delicious breakfast, and then began opening presents.  The kids needed a break, so we put them down for naps, and the adults finished up the presents.  Then it was time to get dressed for church.  Meemaw, Grandpa, Aunt B, Lauren, Charlie, Quinnie and I went to Ocean City to attend Pastor Patty's service.  It was beautiful and the boys stayed home to prepare our traditional Xmas Eve dinner of fondue!!  Win Win!!

The next day, we celebrated Christmas at Grammy and Grumpa's house.  The kids woke up, we opened presents, and then we had a little time before everyone else came over for dinner.  I was not feeling well, so I ended up going to bed and missed the entire dinner.  But I hear it was fantastic!  Also, since I wasn't feeling well, I do not have many pictures from Xmas 2017.  

Everyone had a great holiday, but perhaps Lauren's favorite memory was "jamming" in the garage with Uncle Ryan.  She was so excited to get to play the guitar and bang on a DIY drum set Grumpa put together.  They spent hours out there, and she still talks about that experience today.  

Xmas 2017 was certainly memorable.  Although I wasn't feeling very good, it was nice to be home with our family.  It is always very stressful juggle two different family celebrations and to pack everything up and make sure we have a complete Christmas for the kiddos, but it would not be the same without the family and craziness.  So hopefully this is a tradition that we are able to continue!!

Wreath Laying at Arlington

This year, I really wanted to take part in a yearly tradition and lay wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery.  The weather looked like it was going to hold out, so I decided to take Lauren along for a special day.  I want to make sure she understands that it is important to give back in any way that she can, and it is also important to understand what previous members of our military have sacrificed. 

We took the metro down to Arlington and walked over to the cemetery.  Patience was in order, since so many people had the same idea.  After waiting 20 minutes before moving a foot on a metro platform, I decided to catch the metro down a stop, switch lines, and then come back.  Lauren thought I was crazy, and going the wrong way, but that saved us quite a bit of time.  We had to stand in a long line to get out of the metro, but then we were able to spread out in the cemetery, and Lauren did a great job. 

           

Once we got inside, we began talking about the soldiers who either died while serving in the military or went on to live long lives and were honored by being buried there. 

It did not take long before we found a truck full of wreaths.  We were only allowed one per person, so we took the offered wreaths and walked around a bit.  We read out names, looked at where the soldiers were from, and the dates the soldiers were born/died.  When the name felt right, we stopped and placed our wreaths. 

                               

Then we went back to the truck and grabbed another round of wreaths.  It was so nice to walk through that beautiful cemetery and watch the other volunteers.  There were school aged children, eager to help in any way they could.  There were families, with tears in their eyes, honoring a fallen
family member.  And there were grandparents/parents with smiles on their faces, as they watched their own children/grandchildren volunteering and saying "Thank You"!  It was both solemn and joyous.  There was crying and laughter.  So many emotions and people, and I am so happy that I could share that moment with my own daughter!!

Sometimes it is the simple act that brings the most joy, satisfaction, and thanks.  Spending the morning with Lauren, walking around, talking about history, and taking a moment to say "Thank You.  We will always remember", was such a small moment in time, and yet a moment I will never forget!  

Candy Lane At Hershey Park

On December 8, 2017, Chad and I decided to surprise the kids with a weekend trip up to Hershey Park.  Although many of the rides are closed down, the park lights up in millions of Xmas lights and they do run the smaller rides.  They call it Candy Lane!

We dropped our things off at the hotel and quickly made our way over to Hershey Park for the evening.  It was quite cold, but there was plenty of hot chocolate and we made sure to bundle up.  The kids rode quite a few of the their favorite rides, we stopped for some dinner at our usual summer lunch spot, and then we finished the night off with a walk through all of the lights and a ride on a train.  Despite the temperature, everyone had a LOT of fun.  We will definitely be doing this next year!

           

           

The next day, we woke up and headed over to the Hershey Chocolate Factory to make some chocolate bars.  We got into line and were handed clothing to wear in order to keep the factory sanitary.  Lauren and I immediately began putting on the provided gear.  Charlie, on the other hand, freaked out and refused to put anything on.  He especially hated the hair net.  So, Chad took one for the team and walked him back to the car, where he cried and screamed for an hour.  Lauren and I continued with the tour and made 2 extra candy bars, one for Charlie and one for Chad. 

It was really fun to watch the machines create our candy bars.  I chose chocolate with sprinkles, pretzel bits, and butterscotch chips.  Lauren chose chocolate with chocolate sprinkles.  After walking through all of the stations, the candy bars are wrapped and placed in neat little tins.  Lauren even got to decorate the labels for the tins, and she did a wonderful job.

We collected our chocolate bars and headed back to the car.  Charlie had calmed down, so we decided to walk around a little bit.  It started snowing while we were walking and the kids had fun running around!

           

        

That night, we had dinner at the Bear's Den, one of our favorite restaurants in Hershey, and then headed over to surprise the kids with tickets to the Hershey Bear's ice hockey game.  Lauren was sooo excited.  She even wore her Penn State hockey jersey.  She looked very cute and watched the entire game.  Charlie got a little restless and we took turns walking around with him, but overall, he did a great job as well. 

It was a really fun weekend and we have decided that we will definitely do this trip again!!  Who can say no to chocolate, fun rides, Xmas lights, and a hockey game?!  Not us!  Go Bears!!!

Caps Kids Club Skate

This year, Chad signed Lauren up for the Caps Kids Club, and we were invited to join them for a skate session.  We went to the new outdoor ice rink, located in the newly renovated wharf area of waterfront DC.  It was a cute little rink and we had so much fun skating around.

Lauren got her gear on first and off she went.  Charlie took a little more coaxing.  He was not quite sure about ice skating, but quickly changed his mind as soon as the mascots arrived.  He was quite taken with Slapshot and the Blue Jacket's mascot.  As usual, Lauren zoomed around the ice and could have skated for hours.  She certainly loves being on skates, and while my poor sore feet don't quite understand her love, I am so glad she has a passion for something!!

           

                               

We finished the morning with some hot cocoa and headed home.  Lauren had a skating lesson later that day, and the rest of us had fun at the public skate in Haymarket.  I guess I had better work on my skating skills, because something tells me I will be out on the ice quite a bit over the next few years!!