Merry Christmas et Bonne Annee!

Did we have a White Christmas? Almost - does the day after count?

Our happy little gnome was excited about the whole affair:
Our snow covered house:
Well, even an inch of snow warrants breaking in one of our Christmas presents - the "vehicle of death". I kid. I meant - the sled.

Here's father and son at the top of our hill. Yep, this is a part of our land and they are up by the road:
You have to enlarge this picture - the expressions are priceless:
I love this picture of my love:
We spent a very quiet and relaxing Christmas at home. It was small, calm, and very nice! We played tons of games, did lots of puzzles, watched movies - stayed warm, cozy, and well-fed. It was great!

By Wednesday, Dec. 29 we we drove to Washington DC for a bit of "big city" life! While we love it in the country - we also love being so close to 3 major cities. Since I am a city girl at heart, I find myself twitching if I don't get somewhere I can eat good Asian food!

We went to visit our good friend from grad school, Devina Pillay! She was an amazing hostess and Michael LOVED her mac and cheese! We stayed up until 2am both nights we were there playing Rock Band - an obsession was born! Sadly, we didn't get any pictures with her! But rest-assured - we loved seeing our friend.

We got there Wednesday afternoon and hung out around her neighborhood in Alexandria, VA. We took Michael to a nearby park, Brian taught him how to roll down a hill (super popular), and feasted on a delicious Mexican dinner.

Rock Band until 2am.

Back to being parents at 8am - WHEW. COFFEE please! On Thursday morning, we took the metro over to the Smithsonian area and went ice skating at the Sculpture gardens of the National Museum of Art. Here's the rink in front of the National Archives:
It was awesome. We love DC. SO very much. And I am so excited to get to see so much more of it at different times during the year. It's a pretty special place to me for a variety of reasons.

And our little guy? He did pretty well. After only 45 minutes, the kid was letting go and going on his own:

Finally got a picture of them with the National Archives in the background and Brian takes a cue from John Besancon on how to be in a picture! ;-)
I turned around while waiting in line to get ice skates with the boys and find this thing. WHAT a throwback for me. 2 years ago, we were ice-skating at Hotel de Ville, a 10 minute walk from a metro stop that looked just like this, Cite:
I made them go sit over there and snapped away:
I guess I only got that one shot.

After this, we had lunch and Michael fell asleep in the stroller. He woke up just in time to see Dinosaurs 3D at the IMAX and loved it (us, not so much!). We ran around the museum a bit, saw the Hope diamond, looked at dinosaur bones, and insects. Michael loved it!

After this, we met Devina at King Street metro stop and walked down Olde Town Alexandria a bit, since it is about a 15 minute walk from her place. She then took us to Honey Pig restaurant in Annondale (sp?!).

O.M.G.

I am no expert when it comes to bulgogi/etc - but it was really incredible. The place was PACKED with lots of Koreans - we waited for 30 minutes - but it was SO worth the wait. Michael gobbled it all up.

Rock Band again until 2am.

This time, Brian got up at 8am with Michael. We spent Friday morning hanging around Olde Town Alexandria and peeking into coffee stores, furniture stores, etc. Really loved it there! Had pizza at a delicious place there called Pizza Paradiso - there was a pizza there with a sweet sauce, duck, manchego cheese - drool...

And then we were out after a visit to Cheesetique in Del Ray - Brian got some great stuff that will make us fall off our diet bandwagon pretty early in the year!

And then, we were off. Glad to see our friend - who showed us a great time. Glad to spend some time in the big city. Glad to eat so well! But most of all, glad to have made some great memories as a family.

Hope your new year brings you all these great things in 2011! Bonne Annee et sante!

Love,

P