Holiday Outings

This year, we did our best to take advantage of some of the awesome holiday activities that are available in our area.  We had breakfast with Santa, drove through a holiday light show, visited the US Botanic Gardens and the National Christmas tree!  I didn't take pictures at all of these events (shocking!) but here are some shots from the Botanic Gardens and the National Christmas tree visits. 

The theme of the holiday display at the Botanic Gardens was "The Seven Wonders of the World" (plus a few other places).  We checked out the main display room first which was very cool, since everything inside was made from plant/natural material.  It was so impressive!  Afterwards we toured the rest of the Gardens, since we had never been there before.  Calder loved the jungle room the best! 

Eiffel Tower 

 Thomas the train speeds by the Taj Mahal!

 Calder crosses the "tree bridge" in the jungle room.

 Tessa poses in front of the U.S. Capitol

 The U.S. Botanic Gardens building

 Washington Monument

 National Museum of the American Indian

 Lincoln Memorial

 Outside the Botanic Gardens

We visited the National Christmas Tree on the day after Christmas with Zaidy and Grandma in tow.  It was so cold and crazy windy outside...so we didn't spend a lot of time there and I didn't take a lot of pictures.  Calder enjoyed finding the state trees for Virginia, Michigan and Pennsylvania, but we were all disappointed that the train that normally runs around the big tree wasn't running that night. 

On the walk back to the car, Dave and his dad went ahead to get the car while my mom and I waited inside the ultra-fancy Willard Hotel with the kids.  Calder was very impressed with the beautiful tree and I just prayed that he wouldn't knock anything over as he wildly bounced around and climbed over all the chairs in the lobby.  :)  After about 10 minutes, we decided it was a better idea to wait outside under the heat lamps in the valet area.