Christmas 2012

We continued our tradition of making the trip home to NH to be with the Sewalls for Christmas.  I really enjoyed watching Lucas' excitement this year.  Christmas morning Frances, MaryAnn and I were up before everyone else having a cup of coffee and admiring the tree (we were too excited to sleep as if we were kids again!).  It was like the calm before the storm, because once all of the children were up there was lots of excitement and unwrapping!  Santa was very generous to all this year.  That must mean we are all very good :)

Christmas with Grandma and Papa

The weekend before Christmas my parents always come out to VA to celebrate my birthday and an early Christmas.  They were able to participate in some special activities like Lucas' school holiday tea and our playgroup holiday party.  My parents also graciously (with the help of my Aunt Carol) watched the kiddos overnight so that Steve could take me for a little birthday stay-cation.  We walked around Georgetown and went to Marcel's for dinner.  It was the first time we had been away (even if just for one night) in 4 years!

Thanksgiving and Dad's Surprise Party

This year we decided to have a surprise 80th birthday party for my dad the day after Thanksgiving.  His birthday isn't until January, but a lot of his friends are in Florida during that time so we figured this was the best way to get everyone together!  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family, and then really enjoyed gathering the next day with more family and friends.  My dad was very surprised!

Halloween 2012

This year we were worried that our Halloween festivities would be canceled due to Hurricane Sandy.  Fortunately, our area of Fairfax did not get hit as hard as anticipated and we were able to carry on with our plans.  This year Lucas actually had a costume request-race car driver.  Allie was an adorable bumble bee.  As with tradition, we had dinner and then went trick-or-treating with our friends and neighbors the Walsh family.  We were happy to see some of our other neighbor hood buddies out and about too!

At the end of the evening we used some glow bracelets to make a xylophone-the effect on the camera is pretty neat!