Snow day, Christmas..and you know, our life!

We went to DC for a few days before Christmas. It was so nice to finish off directing the youth choir at "Miracle of Christmas" at the zoo and heading north right after. I had a wonderful birthDAY in the in nation's capitol. Geof.'s getting really good at this birthday stuff. I think I complained enough over past years' lameness and he got the hint (or the blatantly honest, in your face, Darla).

It was freezing, however! I'm lame in cold weather. Can barely stand it. Geof.'s the same way. We still got out and did things (including visiting with my cousin Chelsea, her husband Justin and their two babies-who were in town- at the Botanical Gardens train display and the Lego museum)..until June threw up and then we stayed in and watched movies and visited with some DC friends. Now, that's happy making.

The week before Christmas, the kids school was cancelled due to snow (that hadn't fallen yet) and once again, I stayed inside while they ventured out to the freshly fallen white stuff.

SHE'S getting closer to 40!

To honor my sweet sister Amy on her 38th bday (!!), I didn't wash my hair or get dressed, watched 7 extra kids, cleaned and re-cleaned the kitchen two or 3 times (not bad..) and the last group of girls that came to be baby"sat" (what a funny word), all in honor of Amy's special day, sat down on my (kinda) clean kitchen floor, painted toenails, and applied "yittle girl" make-up. We love you, Amy! We really, really do..

tonight, last night, and last week

We put up the Christmas tree tonight. It was a big pine needly mess. Even my Oreck (which I thought could handle any mess) had a hard time sucking it all up. But it's done, and now we don't want to leave the front room (sleepover under the Christmas tree? I'll leave that to Geof. and the kids). The girls were very excited to play with the nativity. I caught June mid-sentence talking with Mary. (; Oh, and I just noticed i have that pic twice. Who's the favorite...?








We discovered a new part of Richmond that the kids and I had never been to last week. Church hill. The last few colors of fall were holding on just for our viewing. It was beautiful. As I always say, our family is happiest outdoors.

Cole turned eight on the 2nd and we had a bday party for him last night. We went to one of those indoor inflation places. Lame. No, not really. Just the price. I guess that's what happens when your house is too small to accommodate a bday party and you chose to have a kid in the dead of winter (we didn't really choose, though). He invited three boys and one girl who actually moved away during the summer. His first love... (:

And that adorable little pilgrim down there? That's Dayne, of course. Not to be confused with me when I was five (and just happened to be living in VA, as well) and came home during the Thanksgiving festivities wearing close to the same EXACT outfit (but we didn't stop with just the pilgrim/paper bag costume, we ALSO made an indian). I wish I had that5 year old pic of me to compare the two of us.

..and, goodnight!

He's EIGHT!