Twas the Day Before Christmas

Twas the day before Christmas and our little elves had finally recovered from their illnesses enough that they could be dragged out of the house to be tortured by... ahem... have a great time with their parents.

Melinda has really been wanting to take the family downtown to see the National Christmas Tree and the Christmas exhibit at the National Botanical Gardens. So, this morning we bundled up the whole crew and took the metro downtown. Things started out okay, but the cold and crowds wore down the girls quickly.

The National Christmas tree was our first stop.

Our favorite state trees were Iowa and Florida.

Unfortunately, the mile long walk to the botanical gardens was long and cold, and though the girls were bundled snuggly - they were decidedly unhappy about the situation. There were happy, smiling families all around us. But, the kids must have inherited Melinda's Californian intolerance for any temperature below 60 degrees. 

Eleanor spent the entire walk letting

us know what rotten parents we were.

We love this screamin' face.

To make matters worse (for the kids at least), there was a long line to get into the special exhibit at the botanical gardens. Melinda wasn't sure any exhibit could be worth waiting another 45 minutes to an hour with fussy kids... but, after the long walk we were in it until the end. The garden is famous for it's train exhibit at Christmas time, but Adelaide was most excited about the fairy theme this year. In fact, once we were in there, she didn't even notice the trains.

A bag of popcorn plus the promise of fairies 

kept Adelaide going. She helped push her own stroller

and pointed out the poinsettia plants. 

Eleanor pulled herself together after Dad

sacrificed his coat to provide her another layer. 

We swear, it wasn't THAT cold, there were 

people walking around in light sweaters and long sleeves.

But, Eleanor was all smiles once she was wrapped up like a mummy. 

Once we got inside the garden, with its tropical temps, 

Eleanor was really all smiles and giggles. 

This kid belongs in Hawaii. 

No Humans Allowed! Adelaide loved all the fairy grottos. 

The exhibit was filled with sculptures made from plants. 

In keeping with the fairy theme there were castles, dragons, 

mermaids and, of course, fairies, everywhere you looked.

A Castle! We were impressed. 

Yep, there is a dragon up there. We spent

a long time looking around and Adelaide hated to leave.

We got home just as the first few flakes of snow started to fall. We all warmed up with hot chocolate, naps (for the kids) and gingerbread cookies. Yum!

Adelaide and Mom made the cookies

yesterday so they'd be ready to decorate. 

Adelaide tried to cram as many star sprinkles 

and red hots onto each cookie as she possibly could. 

 

While the rest of the family decorated cookies,

Eleanor was busy cookin' up some mischief of her own.

Dad, Mom, Adelaide and Eleanor Gingerbread family.

Christmas time is such fun! We can't wait until tomorrow. But, on a totally not holiday related topic, here are a couple more pictures. The 40 year old light fixture in our kitchen gave up this week and Matt replaced it. Everything Matt did in the "big" kitchen, Adelaide imitated in her "little" kitchen. Cute? You better believe it.

Painting the newly exposed ceiling... 

Wrenching stuff (she finished painting before

Dad - Mom gave her a brush and water).