I'm catching up on blogging after a busy December. Here's a quick recap in pictures. Christmas Eve we spent here in Charlotte with our friends, Lans, Chrissie & Ali Slack. After a meatball dinner, we let Elise open her gifts & play long past her bedtime....
Elise playing with her Little People town set.
Oh, the wonder of Christmas through the eyes of a child.
On Christmas Day, we drove to Alexandria, VA to see Paul, Jodi & Curt. Elise was very excited to see Curtis, as well as the dog, Bailey.
Elise gave Bailey a reindeer dog toy & helped her open it & sniff.
The day after Christmas we headed to a great park in Old Town Alexandria & got a little fresh air
Here's my delightful piece of Birthday cake - Jodi made Chocolate cavity maker cake with chocolate sauce & fresh raspberries...yum!
As part of my birthday gift, Jodi and Paul agreed to watch Elise for a day so that John and I could go into D.C. We enjoyed the American History Museum where we saw one of Abraham Lincoln's hand-written drafts of the Gettysburg address, Ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz & several other very interesting artifacts throughout our nation's history. Next, we toured the National Portrait Gallery. Our favorite display was the oil paintings of all the Presidents. In fact, George W. Bush's portrait had been newly hung the week before. We had lunch at a great little French cafe' and had to take a picture of this great cheese platter.
John and I in front of the National Christmas tree, with the White House in the background.
Little did we know, Paul & Jodi took Elise downtown during the day to the National Aquarium, and I guess she loved the fish & especially the sharks....is this really my daughter?
The following evening, we all again ventured down to the National Mall.
We enjoyed a fun spin around on the Carousel. The weather during our stay was really very balmy for D.C. and it was beautiful to be out.
At the National Sculpture Garden, they have an ice rink & we decided to give it a try...what a fun time!
They even had little skates for Elise, and she made it around the rink once, and then she was done. I think she may have been overwhelmed with all the people, or she was scared about how she couldn't stand up on her own...but it was very cute!
One of her favorite things at the rink was watching the Zamboni...
Thanks, Paul & Jodi for hosting such a fun time over Christmas in D.C.
Life here is Charlotte is back to normal after a busy Christmas season - at least for a little while! Elise has been enjoying her little playhouse, however, as I post this, it has been moved outside so that I can have my family room back.
About a week or so before Christmas she started giving us big smiles when we pulled out the camera; squinty eyes, big grin, but in many of our pictures it almost comes across as a scowl? Where did she learn to do this? Pretty funny.
We stopped at Ikea on our way home from D.C. and picked up a duvet fill for her crib, so once we got home I used some leftover fabric to make her a duvet cover. She curled right up into it, and now she loves getting into her bed, snuggling and having her books read to her.
Musical? We're not sure yet, but she does love to sit and play at the piano. Again, you can see that we have the "smile" pose from her.
