Two Boys and a Seoul Sister: Playing Catch Up

Warning: This is a long post and will probably be ultra boring if you are not a family member or close friend. But I need something for our memory book, so bear with me!

I know this is a bit tardy, but better late than never, right?

I love Christmas. I mean, seriously.love.Christmas. Not just Christmas day, but the entire holiday season. I love the decorating, the baking, the celebrations and music. I am one of those people that has my car radio continuously tuned to the "all Christmas all the time" station from Thanksgiving through New Years. My heart goes a flutter when I see the first signs of Christmas decor at the local strip mall. And yes, I even (gasp) started putting up our Christmas decor before Thanksgiving this year.

So no surprise, every year ~~our family joyfully participates in~~ I make our family do a whole bunch of things that I have declared our annual family holiday "traditions" (the problem, as J sees it, is that I seem to come up with a new "tradition" every year). Christmas is always special for our family, but this Christmas was a little extra special because we had L home with us to share in all of our traditions.

Okay, so the first of our traditions is the Choral Arts Society Family Christmas Concert at the Kennedy Center. We go every year usually a couple of weeks before Christmas and I just love it. The music is great; the audience gets to sing along with the Christmas carols; and Santa, Frosty, and Rudolph make an appearance at the end. It always really puts me in the holiday spirit. I knew it was probably coming at some point, but sooner than I expected, our eldest declared for the first time this year that he didn't want to go and that the Santa that comes out isn't even the "real" Santa (on the positive side, at least he still believes in Santa!). That should have been my first sign that perhaps this wasn't going to be the magical family holiday moment I had my heart set on.

We were on the fence about whether we were going to take L with us. I really wanted her there to share in the tradition, but J thought she may not be able to sit through the whole thing (considering she doesn't ever make it through church). But in the end we figured bringing her was more economical than paying for a sitter, so along she came. She did well for about the first 20 minutes, but then started to get really restless - kicking the chairs and trying to touch the people sitting in front of us, playing musical chairs between all of our family members, and letting out a huge scream if we tried to get her to sit still. So, after a while, we just let her out of our laps and let her stand (or, more accurately, scrounge around on the floor in front of us and under our chairs - yuck). This was going well until she discovered a stash of food in my purse. We certainly couldn't let her eat in the concert hall at the Kennedy Center, so I had to take it away from her. As you might imagine, that didn't really go over very well and engendered huge, blood curdling screams. It was no less than a Christmas miracle that we were able to get her to calm down rather quickly and go back to her under chair exploration. All was well until J said he smelled something. Seriously, she had to pick NOW to poop? So, family holiday tradition #1 I have to admit was a semi-failure this year. We had one pouting kid who didn't want to be there, one restless/screaming/stinky kid, and J and I didn't really get to enjoy the show because we spent the entire time trying to placate L. But on a positive note, B had a great ole time (and didn't seem to notice any of the drama that was going on - go figure).

On to holiday family tradition #2..... Every year, on the evening of the 23rd, we drive downtown to see the National Christmas Tree, which is on the Ellipse right in front of the White House in Wash, DC. There is a stage with live musical performances every evening, a huge yule log, the National Menorah, a large Nativity, and Santa's workshop where kids can make crafts and visit with Santa.

All suited up and trekking over to the White House...

We caught some shots of the Capital Building on the way over.

For some reason, Marine One (the Presidential helicopter) kept landing on and taking off from the White House lawn over and over and over again that evening (seriously, like 20 times when we were there). It was really noisy, but really neat to see. This is the best shot we could get (they all turned out blurry). Marine One is the blurry, shiny thing on top of the White House.

And here is the National Christmas Tree. The smaller trees you see encircling it represent each of the 50 states and U.S. territories and have ornaments on them created by residents (usually children) of that state/territory. Pictures don't really do it justice. There are also a bunch of trains running at the base and all around the National tree. You can even see the passengers inside. The trains are the kids' favorite.

Prior to visiting the tree, we went to the United States Botanic Garden. They have an exhibit every year of all of the monuments, the White House, Capital Building made out of all natural materials - twigs, leaves, grasses, etc. - and a huge train and pointsettia display. This year, they also had landmarks from around the world made out of natural materials - Eiffel Tower, Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu, and a bunch of others.

Here are the boys in front of the 'Capital Building'.

And all three in front of the 'Smithsonian'.

The boys in front of the 'Eiffel Tower'

This would have been a great family picture if C had his eyes open.

On Christmas Eve morning, I took the boys ice skating at an outdoor rink at a shopping center near our house. I don't know why we've never taken them before, but they LOVED it and were quick learners, especially C. He was off and skating in no time flat. And yes, I declared this our new Christmas Eve family tradition.

Getting laced up....

And they're off....

Later that afternoon, we headed over to our good friend's house for some pre-church appetizers and libations ;-). And then off to church for Christmas Eve service.

Christmas was quieter than usual this year, as normally we have at least some portion of one of our families here. My mom almost always comes out from Arizona, but couldn't make it this year because of her job. And J's parents chose to spend the holidays at home this year with his siblings (but came out after Christmas for J's birthday and New Years). It was kind of a bummer for me, both because I love having a lot of family around during the holidays and because it was L's first Christmas with us and I would have loved to share it with our families. But nonetheless, we had a nice, quiet family Christmas, and it was the first Christmas in a long time where I didn't feel the longing and sadness of waiting for a child to come home.

The boys loved their jerseys....