I grabbed our new camera and we headed Christmas evening to see the Festival of Lights at the LDS Washington, D.C. temple.  Amazing lights, an outdoor nativity, a creche room in the visitors' center with 80 nativity scenes from all over the world donated by collectors for the month, and a theater of performances going on every night.  The outdoor tree lights are put on by volunteer members of the church that start putting them up in August, and it takes them until April to take them down.  Quite the effort, but definitely worth it.  The days before Christmas and after, they were averaging about 8,000 visitors per night, and for the month a total of 100,000 visitors.  Amazingly the special spirit and calm of the temple was still there despite the crowds.  I couldn't get enough of the lights with the temple in the backdrop all lit up beautifully as well. I'm glad we were here to take advantage of the festival!  Briant and I got to enjoy everything again when we volunteered to help usher in the visitors' center a few days after Christmas.  We both commented that it was probably one of our favorite volunteer service opportunities that we've ever had!

We got to the temple just before the sun had completely set so I quickly grabbed some pics while the sky was still light and had some sunset color on the horizon and then had fun taking pics in the dark.

Honestly this Christmas season has been a little exhausting for me.  Or should I say, the last two months have been exhausting.  I think it was a combination of having recently moved here and having all of the holidays after Oct. 27, mixed with getting a job and working, spending a lot of time not only Christmas shopping but shopping for winter clothes for 5 people that haven't experienced cold weather for 2 years, and doing all of the other things you have to do when settling into a new place with school, church, etc.  I survived though and we had a nice Christmas Eve and Day.  I am looking forward to things slowing down now though.  :)

Before bed on Christmas Eve, Rhea graced us with reading a book that Grandma B gave us about the first nativity.  That girl will do anything to have an audience while she reads to her "students."  In her dramatic (and untrue) way, she said, "This is exciting!  I've never had an audience while I read!"  We listen to her read all the time, but truly it is never enough in her mind.  She wants to take over all reading of scriptures, our family book like Harry Potter that we're reading together, etc.  It's cute.  :)

 After the reading, we finished off the twelve day ornaments that Grandma B. gave us a few years ago.  We had a nice meaningful discussion about Christ and all of those involved in the birth and early days of the Savior's life.  The kids then got to open their traditional Christmas Eve present of pajamas.  They loved them because they were "sooooo cozy!"

 Christmas morning, the kids waited for us in their room.  We actually duct taped their door shut fearing that they could come out and see everything on their way to get us in our bedroom (the family room is set in between the two rooms).  Bri set our alarm for 6am but for some reason it didn't go off, so at 6:30am, when we told the kids we would come and get them, we heard the kids and their excited squeals, and woke up.  We hurried to get dressed and met the kids in their room.  I made them line up youngest to oldest (another family tradition) as far away from their doorway as possible, so they had the feeling of anticipation a little longer (when we had stairs in Utah, they had to line up at the top of the stairs, and in Angola, they had a long hallway to run down).

 The kids were excited and tore into their stockings!  Savvy was given things horse related with her love of horses, Rhea was given a desk for her doll and a classroom backdrop for the doll as she plays teacher, and Thomas had asked for a drone.  Santa was good to them!

A few of the wrapped gifts from grandparents (we appreciate all of the money, gift cards, etc that were given as well--so generous!!!):

 One of my favorite things about Christmas is seeing the kids make gifts or buy gifts for each other without prodding from mom or dad.  And I love the reactions!  Savvy received a promise of 10 hugs each month from Thomas.  As you can see from the picture, this has made Savvy very happy because Thomas typically doesn't like to hug her (she tends to hug with a lot of love--too much for Thomas ;) ).  It was a thoughtful gift, something that he knew she would want!

 Savannah and Thomas both gave gymnastics leotards to Rhea even though she's not enrolled in official classes.  She just LOVES gymnastics and has a friend that teaches her things.

Thomas knew also about Rhea's love of emojies, so using the melting beads, he created some for her along with her name.  She loved them!

Thomas has been patiently waiting for a soccer ball to kick around Oakwood.

We love our new "Europe" puzzle from Uncle Gord and Aunt Katrina's family that's living in Sweden right now waiting for us to move to Riga.  ;)  We can't wait to be close to them!And Bri loved his new personalized leather toiletries bag and catchall for his things.  I am still finding him stopping and taking the time to smell them.  He loves leather.  :)

Thomas loves his new camera as well.  This guy gets really creative with videos he makes--family videos, stop motion with legos or whatever, etc.  He's been using our 10 year old point and shoot that has been perfect for his projects, but it finally died recently, so we thought we better give him something to keep up his creativity.

Rhea gave Savannah a ring-pop she got for Halloween.  She's been saving it for her specifically for Christmas knowing how much she loves them!

And while Christmas shopping for me on ebay, Bri found a little Buddah head with different expressions of emotions depicted on four sides.  He loved it so much that he bought it for himself.  Funny enough, I bought him a Buddha board so now he and his Buddah head can go Zen out together.

After enjoying our present giving and getting, we got ready for church.  Bri and Thomas performed a musical number together with their Irish whistles.  I was proud of them for being willing to contribute to the program and they did a great job!  It sounded great in the chapel with the microphone too.  I recorded them when we got home to preserve the memory of the performance and the times they practiced together:

After church we ate a quick dinner and headed to the LDS Washington, D.C. temple to see the Festival of Lights (pics are in another post).  It was a wonderful way to end our Christmas Day!  We feel so blessed for the gift of the Savior in our lives and the tender mercies He and our Heavenly Father have blessed us with.  We know we fall so short of these blessings and yet they keep coming... 

Adeana and Barry from our ward, invited us over to their house to reenact the Christmas nativity story.  

They're empty nesters who miss that part of Christmas, so they invited us to do it with them.  We were thrilled at the invitation since we're here in VA without family, and we appreciate our association with them.  First, Barry cooked us an authentic Puerto Rican meal (pork, rice, and beans) since he is Puerto Rican and I have missed their food since my mission to NYC where I got to eat Hispanic food from all over central and southern America.  It was delicious!  I was so grateful for his effort for me!  They asked if we wanted to invite another family to the nativity portion of the evening which we thought was a great idea.  We invited the G family from our ward because we wanted our kids to spend some more time with their kids and thought they would enjoy it as well.  The G family also invited two Brazilian women that Kris Anne had met at the grocery store.  Kris Anne served a mission in Brazil like my husband, and with us having recently returned from Portuguese speaking Angola, we were able to communicate with them for the three hours we were together.  It made me miss speaking Portuguese!

Thomas and Savannah were Mary and Joseph, while Bri was the donkey.  :)Rhea was an angel.  Adeana had the narration written out and we stopped for the singing of hymns/carols periodically that were worked into the "program."

Kris Anne and her younger kids were the shepherds.Kris Anne's older kids were the wise men, while Adeana's son visiting from BYU was King Herod.A very fun night for us as we were able to something we've tried to do as a tradition for our family over the years.  It was also our 17th wedding anniversary, so it was fun to celebrate over Puerto Rican rice and beans and talking about Christ's birth with friends.

One of my favorite times of the year to get pictures of my kids, is in the fall.  And since we haven't experienced "true fall" for two years, I really wanted to make sure we captured the leaves in some pics.  By the time we got a camera, the leaves were almost gone, at least the brilliant ones in our neighborhood that were at picture taking level, facing the right direction and weren't on private property.  I really loved all of the reds and oranges I saw over the month of leaf change, but I knew my kids wouldn't be up to running around the city with me to find the best leaves, and by the time we got around to taking the pics that day, the sun was setting fast and we were almost out of light.  So we settled on this little area I saw as we drove out of our apartment parking lot that was right across the street.  The setting sun cast a bright light right where my kids were standing so they had really bright faces and some shadows on the ground, but I loved it so I took the pic.  Luckily the light softened quickly.

Thomas is into funny photobombing lately, so he made sure he was in a few pics.And Savvy had to get in on it too.  :)I love capturing these cute moments where the kids cozy up with each other and they seem a little more patient with each other.  If only they could be this tender with each other all the time!

Just a few weeks after being back in the states, we had Rhea's baptism and Thomas was ordained a deacon of the Aaronic priesthood.  Rhea turned 8 and Thomas turned 12 while we were in Angola, but we thought it would be best to share these special moments with family, in English, back home.

We're glad we waited.  It was a special weekend with G-ma and G-pa P and Grandma B and cousin Bryson.Everyone arrived on Thursday night, so we took the metro in on Friday and spent the day in D.C.  Rhea and Savannah went to school, but Bryson and Thomas talked us into letting Thomas skip school to spend time with his cousin.  Good decision considering the fun they had palling around D.C. together!It was so nice to be back in the city and see some of our favorite buildings like the Botanical Garden, Smithsonian Castle, & the Capitol building, and to have cool fall weather instead of hot and humid July weather like we had two years ago when we lived here!A quick lunch at a McDonald's kiosk sort of place that had a selection of 3 or 4 different meals we could choose from.  Awesome idea!White House behind Bryson:

I couldn't get enough of the Washington Monument with the different looking sky throughout the day or the fall leaves!It happened to be Veteran's Day as well, so at the World War II and Korean War memorials, we witnessed tributes to some veterans.  It gave a little more meaning to the visit of those memorials that day!Again, I couldn't get enough of the beautiful architecture, fall colors, wide open spaces and grassy areas!  Oh, how I've missed them!We finished the day off at a Vietnamese restaurant at the Eden Center close to home.Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for the 9am baptism.  We felt so blessed to have the support of not only our family, but also our primary president and Bishop that helped prepare everyone for that day, and they both attended.  We are also grateful for Shelyn and Sylvia (Rhea's friend from Primary), and Adeana and Barry, a couple from the ward, that were sweet enough to come and support us once they found out about it.  Everyone could have found every excuse why not to come, but they didn't, and for that we are grateful!  Both grandmas spoke and gave beautiful talks, and with the songs and baptism and confirmation, I felt the spirit very strong.  I know Rhea felt it too and will always remember how she felt.Grandma B bought Rhea her scriptures, journal, and towel with her name embroidered on it.  So generous and wonderful for Rhea to have her own of all of these things!After the baptism, we changed our clothes and enjoyed a lunch at IHOP before heading to the Air and Space Museum in Dulles.  A fun afternoon!Sunday, our last full day together, started with a beautiful trip to the Washington, D.C. temple.  I used the opportunity to get pics of each of the kids, especially Rhea in her baptism dress and Thomas in his suit before he got the priesthood that day.  And I wanted to get a few pics for Bryson as well.We loved our fun and memorable weekend with our grandmas and grandpa and cousin Bryson.  We appreciated the sacrifices they made to come and visit us and to be a part of our family's memories!