Christmas Bells Are Ringing

This year for Christmas we spent it in Virgina. A few days before Christmas Chris and Arista got really bad colds. I thought I would miss out on all the cold/flu fun but unfortunately it hit me on Christmas Eve. I lost my voice, and had a terrible sore throat. No Christmas carols were sung by me, however we had an amazing night.

We started off our Christmas Eve festivities by visiting The National Botanical Gardens. They had fantastic replicas of famous sites made out of plants, dirt, twigs, seeds etc. There was also this train exhibit that was incredible!







After visiting the gardens we ate at the American Grill at Union Station. We had a beautiful view of the Capital from our table, as well as a neat train display right below us. Arista enjoyed watching the trains go round and round as we waited for our food.









From Union Station we drove to the Washington D.C. temple's visitor center. They had over millions of Christmas lights lit up as well as beautiful Christmas trees. We listened to the sister missionaries perform a beautiful melody of Christmas carols, and it really helped us remember the true meaning of Christmas. After the concert we walked around outside and took pictures. Poor Arista was so tired and sick she slept the entire time we were at the temple. That didn't stop us from taking many many pictures of her though. :)







Arista woke up at the perfect moment to open all her gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Martin, because they were leaving early the next morning for Texas. We gave Chad a frame with pictures of him and his grandchildren and Sue a Grandma bracelet and Deal or No Deal for her DS.





For Christmas Chris bought me our first piece of art, Thomas Kincaid's Disney Castle. I am soo in love with it.



Arista was ecstatic with all the books she received as well as her building block truck, and Noah's Ark. We ended the night cleaning up, and watching Christmas with the Cranks. Arista didn't go to bed until well after 2am, so Santa had a very late night.







Christmas morning we woke up around 10am and started opening our gifts. Arista didn't know what to think! I think Santa spoiled her way too much! Arista had a blast ripping all the paper and playing with all her new and fun toys.










When I found Chris' main gift this year I was ecstatic! I thought for sure Chris would do a cartwheel he would love it so much. Everyone I talked to said that the gift sounded awesome. Well you could not hide the disappointment on Chris' face when he opened a "make your own soda machine"...It took me a good 20 minutes to recover from the disappointment I felt in failing as santa this year. Fortunatly I made up for with with the Family Guy Star Wars Trilogy as well as other Star Wars related things. For once I wanted to buy my husband something that you would not purchase at a toy store. I'll stick with toys for now on. ;)





After a breakfast of pancakes and eggs we opened our stockings. I always loved opening my stocking more than the presents. Around 3pm a guy from our ward came over to spend Christmas day with us. He was unable to visit his family this year, so we gladly offered to have him come over for dinner and games. I made a yummy dinner of Pork Tenderloin, homemade rolls, sweet potatoes, corn, and pumpkin pie! After dinner we played Scattagories, and I beat everyone! Chris has never lost a game of Scattagories, so I walked around with pride the rest of the night. After our evening ended we were exhausted. We ended the night watching one of my favorite movies "The Sound Of Music". It was my Great Great Aunt Clara's favorite movie, and everytime I watch it I think of when I would visit her. We had a wonderful Christmas this year, and although Preslie could not join us we knew she was watching.