Baby It's Cold Outside

We headed down to Washington DC in the pouring rain and checked into the JW Marriott Hotel. Our plan to see the National Christmas Tree was put on hold and we stayed and swam in the hotel pool instead.

Then off to the Wizards game. With our family, I think the attendance reached a max of maybe 23? J/K but seriously, the Wizards are pathetic! We thought they might win, but they managed to lose in the last two minutes. Good thing we enjoyed the hot dogs, wings and chips.

After an interesting night of musical beds, we awoke to no rain, but lots of wind. Brrrrrrr! It was chilly! Luckily, the White House was only a block and 1/2 away, but even then our feet were frozen by the time we got there!

                                     Civil War Monument by the Dept. of the Treasury

                                                         The National Christmas Tree

                                              See the White House in the background?

                                  Mikelle found the tree from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Syd and E loved watching the different train sets all around the National Tree. Here's Thomas!

We had thought of walking to the Sculpture Garden at the Nat'l Gallery of Art for ice skating, but due to the cold temperatures and our frozen feet, we opted for plan B. The kids saw the Spy Museum on the way to the Verizon Center last night, so we decided to head there. For a nice, warm, indoor activity! We found the Federal Triangle Metro and rode to Gallery Place. Luckily, we only had to wait in the outside line for the Spy Museum for a few minutes. Once we got inside, Syd volunteered to take the quiz to see who was the biggest James Bond Fan--their special exhibit was 50 years of James Bond Villains. Her first question: What kind of martini does 007 drink? With dad's help she answered a Vodka Martini-shaken not stirred. Correct! Her second question: In which James Bond film did the Aston Martin first appear? She answered "Dr. No" with assistance from a some by-stander who obviously did NOT know and dagger--Incorrect! The correct answer was "Gold Finger." The employee still gave her a prize for being so cute!

     
We all found something to like at the various Spy Museum exhibits and Logan really got into it! He could have stayed all day long! After some delicious wood fired pizza at a local eatery, we headed back to the hotel via the metro ... and then back to Ashburn via our one-horse-open-sleigh (Dan's car.)

Here are some of the beautiful decorations in the lobby. When we arrived, Syd said, "This hotel is a little too fancy for me!"

                                           Happy to be inside, warm and headed home.

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas 2012 was filled with fun, laughter, family and abundance of friends and blessings. We shared our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of ham, potatoes and Christmas jell-o with the Kerbys, the Covingtons and the Van Horns. After some games, lots of food, and re-enacting the nativity story our friends headed out and we headed on a secret errand. We loaded a Costco box with presents and goodies for a family in the ward and Logan and Mikelle made the secret drop and dash, while we watched from a distance. Back at home, the kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve PJ's and posed for a photo or two before heading to bed.

The kids woke us up at 7 AM sharp on Christmas morning and we rushed to the basement to see if Santa had come! He had indeed.

           Syd received a new bike, 2 American Girl doggies and a Lego Friends Olivia's house.

Logan searched through box after box after box and finally found an iPod Touch and Skull Candy headphones.

       Mikelle received a North Face fleece and a black puffer jacket and hot pink texting gloves.

Ethan found a hidden mound by his Christmas stocking and pulled back the Christmas quilt to find a "really fast, green race car---just like the one at Costco!" Luckily, 4-year old's are not bothered with Santa's shopping patterns!

The kids were delighted when Dan looked at the bottom his stocking and found a lump of coal! Luckily, he found a few items under the tree with his name: Ray Ban sunglasses and a Rocket Ballz driver (golf club) and this .....

                                      ....a cousin Eddy hat. Merry Christmas, Clark-Merry Christmas.

He surprised me with some cute PJ's, warm Ugg slippers and a gift certificate to Landsdowne Spa!

Our Christmas was peaceful and joyful and we are aware that we have an abundance of blessings to be grateful for. May the love our Savior brought to the earth dwell in our hearts throughout the coming year-

                                  Merry Christmas 2012
                                                                    from the Kotters

White Christmas

I have to say that seeing the snow on Christmas Eve was a true Christmas miracle! The forecast was for rain and there is nothing more dreary than rain at Christmas. The neighborhood kids were out delivering goodies and each time I answered the door the drops of rain looked more and more like snow. I hardly dared to hope, but by noon we had beautiful snowflakes gently falling. It lasted all afternoon and into the evening. Dan and Mikelle were out shopping; Logan was at a movie with Robert; Syd and E were playing at the Candlands, so I was in my kitchen baking away. Just me, my old Christmas CD's, and the snow falling outside! It was honestly a picture-perfect afternoon!

                      I didn't know how long it would last, so I raced outside to take a picture!

                         Then I rushed over to Remi's to take some photos of the kids:

Syd, Sophie, Lauren, Brooke, Ethan and Craig

Love those hats!

                                               

                                                                 Reindeer games?

  Our beautiful, Mikelle.

                                                 My fun, creative, kind, giving friend, Remi.

A Polar Express Party

Ethan's Christmas party at pre-school had a Polar Express theme. He was so excited to wear his jammies to school! The party started off with a golden ticket being given to each child. As they entered the classroom, their ticket was punched, as if they were boarding the train. They enjoyed hot chocolate and cookies, a story, some crafts and some games. It was a clever theme and all the little cuties had a festive time.

Arrow of Light Award

Logan earned his cub scout Arrow of Light award this month. The Arrow of Light is the highest award in the cub scouting program. He also earned a special recognition for earning every one of the activity badges! We are so grateful to Laura Bennett and Nanette Hamm, his Weblos leaders. They have been very patient, organized and enthusiastic and have kept him on track and moving toward his goals.

This was his "graduation" from cub scouts and now he is meeting with the 11-year old scouts. As part of the "graduation" ceremony, he was awarded with an honorary Indian name and was able to place his hand print on our pack's tee-pee. His honorary Indian name is: Wa-Kush-ton meaning feet like an elephant, head of stone and heart of a lion.

His friend, Robert Candland, also received his Arrow the same evening. These 2 have really grown up together and seeing them reach this milestone at the same time was very rewarding for all involved.

                    The Weblos: Logan, Tyler Hamm, Mason Covington and Robert Candland

                                           Sister Bennett gives Logan his final awards.

                                                      The proud parents with their scout.

                                                  Placing his hand print on the tee-pee.
The first 2 hand prints on the pack's new tee-pee belong to Robert and Logan. They had to build a new tee-pee after the other one was full of hand prints.

                                     Robert and Logan and Bro. Mueller, the Cub Master.

12/12/12

A bit of a crazy day here at the Kotter house....one that gives me grey hair just thinking about it!

The day started off fine. I was out getting some shopping done with Remi. We made it through all of the stores we needed to at the mall and were headed to grab some lunch when my phone rang. It was Beth from the elementary school and her first words were, "Don't worry. Everyone is OK." She went on to explain that Sydney had fallen on the playground. She had a scratch on the side of her face and cracked the frame of her glasses. The right lens had fallen out, but the nurse was kind enough to go back out and find it in the mulch! At the moment, Syd was walking around without glasses. I promised to hurry home for her back-up pair and bring them as soon as I could.

Twenty minutes later, I checked in at the office and found Sydney in the lunch room with her classmates. She was sitting with Kyra and besides a bandaged faced, seemed just fine. I actually think she was enjoying the attention! Kyra told me not to worry. While Syndey didn't have her glasses she was being her guide and was even helping her identify her lunch--this is your apple/this is your sandwich. I about cracked up! But they were very serious and so I tried to be too. I gave her the back-up glasses and gave her a kiss and all seemed well.

A few hours later she arrived home from school without any glasses on her face.

"Syd. Where are your glasses? ...the back-up pair I brought you at school today?"

"Well, they fell off my face and broke."

"They fell off your face? Hmmmmmm. Can I see them?"

The glasses she handed me were in two pieces. The ear pieces were bent beyond recognition. It was quite obvious that this pair of glasses had been stomped on.

The next part was not a pretty scene. She got a talking to and was sent to her room. When I couldn't get the real story out of her I asked Logan. He didn't know because he arrived home a full 5 minutes ahead of her. Then I unleashed it on him. If he had been with her like he was suppposed to be, this never would have happened.

Dan was in Argentina, but I called him on the phone with the news that his daughter had destroyed 2 pairs of glasses (roughly $800 of eye wear) in one day--one on accident and one on purpose. Granted she has no idea the monetary value of her glasses, but I am quite sure that she knew it was naughty to stomp the smitherenes out of them. He spoke with her and erred on the side of mercy. Someone had made fun of her and she just wanted to be like the other kids! With no glasses!

I, being the bad cop, was still erring on the side of justice.  She is grounded for 2 weeks and working to pay the $40 warranty that we were lucky enough to be able to purchase to cover the cost of the new frames and lenses. What to do with this one? She will definitely be the cause of my mental and emotional demise--not to mention our financial ruin! But the only thing that keeps coming to my mind is a song from the musical "Camelot"...."Love her, simply love her...love her."

                                                 The glasses that "fell off" Syd's face.

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

Syd performed beautifully in her piano recital on Saturday. She played two songs: "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Deck the Hall". She practiced hard and I am very proud of her efforts!

                                                      Video of "Deck the Halls"

                                            Syd performs "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas"....

Hurry! Get the tree!

Our Saturday had to be one of the craziest days ever! In between the early morning hike, the piano recital, the 2 basketball games and the office party we found 2 hours to get our tree. We didn't have time to travel to our traditional location, Snickersville Gap Farm. We've gone there every December since Sydney was a baby to chop down our own tree. The kids love it and Dan and I love feeling like we are out in the wilderness! Alas, we had to break tradition!

Today's plan was to go to a closer tree lot and choose a live tree. We chose Layne's Farm off Evergreen Mills Road. It couldn't have worked out better! Within 5 minutes we found a beautiful tree and they shook it and wrapped it for us. They even tied it on top of the car. Santa Clause was there and Sydney and Ethan got quite a long conference with him. This worked out well for all of us--Syd and E were thrilled with the attention and Dan and I were thrilled when Santa had time to explain how difficult it was to put a puppy on the sleigh!

They still had the slides up from their pumpkin patch in October. Since it was such a warm day we took a few minutes to race each other down the hill!

Slides, Santa and a fresh tree! Everybody went home happy:)

                                          A unanimous choice--this year's tree. Isn't she a beauty?

                                                     A little video of the slides...

                                                             Syd and E visit with Santa.

                                  The video of Syd and E's requests from the man in red...