Chez George

A while back I spotted a Groupon to visit Mount Vernon and snatched it up. We waited a while to use it so we could go when the estate was all decked out for Christmas and it did not disappoint.

Apparently one Christmas the General (as they call him there) rented a camel to entertain his family, so now they bring a camel in every year. This camel wasn’t all that entertaining, but Lincoln thought it was pretty cool. We also saw a chocolate demonstration and the turkey that was officially pardoned by President Obama on Thanksgiving.

Here we are in front of the Mansion.

There was a real working blacksmith on the estate as well. We asked him tons of questions and enjoyed watching him make J hooks.

You aren’t allowed to take pictures inside the mansion, but we saw such interesting sites as a key to the Bastille that was given to Gen. Washington as a gift, the room where he died, and his study and chair.

There was a hill perfect for rolling down just behind the mansion. Several kids were rolling away and Lincoln wanted to give it a try.

Jonathan tried to give him a lesson…

But just ended up on the ground right along with him.

Our last stop was a GW museum where they had a replica of the mansion made of gingerbread by the White House Pastry chief. It was pretty impressive.

North Pole Post

Lincoln has spent the last couple of weeks busily pouring over various Toys R Us catalogs as he’s contemplated what to ask Santa Claus for this year.

He’s finally made his choices and we’re all set to mail his letter. Here he is with his final product:

He was very careful about all his choices and cut out and glued down the pictures (mostly) by himself. I don’t necessarily agree with all of his choices, but I guess that is between him and Santa. We’ll just have to wait and see what he gets on Christmas morning!

Fringe Benefits

Jonathan has been able to snag a couple of sets of tickets to sporting events at the Verizon Center from work over the past couple of months. This weekend we were able to attend a Georgetown game (versus the New Jersey Institute of Technology… maybe that is why no one else wanted the tickets). Lincoln was pretty pumped when we asked if he wanted to go to a basketball game and kept telling us how fun it was afterward. Hopefully we’ll be able to get some tickets to an NBA game when the season finally starts.

Colonial Williamsburg by Lincoln

We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving in Southern Virginia last week with our friends, the Johnsons. After some early morning shopping on Black Friday, Jonathan, Lincoln, Christopher, and I headed to Colonial Williamsburg to have a look around. I was allowed to take a few pictures at first, but soon my camera was seized by a miniature photographer and never relinquished.

It was a beautiful day (I’m having a hard time remembering that December is fast approaching when it’s almost 70 degrees out), and we enjoyed checking out the shops and buildings the town had to offer. I kept trying to get a picture of Lincoln in a cute colonial hat, but he wasn’t cooperating.

                                                                             

So I decided to model the type of pose I was looking for and allow him to take my picture. But then he became much more interested in taking the pictures then posing for them.

Lincoln loves using our old point-and-shoot camera at home, but he discovered that it’s much easier for him to take pictures with my newer camera. He filled up the available space on our memory card pretty quickly.

                                                                                         

Some artsier shots…

                                                                            

I think this might have been a nice picture if he would have gotten our heads.

                                                                                         

This picture was completely intentional. He told me he was going to, “Take picture my shoes!” And he loved taking pictures of Christopher, who won his complete fidelity after making donuts for breakfast that morning.

                                                                                        

Are these cookies done yet?

How about now? Now?

25 Weeks

Lincoln wanted to show off his belly too.

Return of RoboLinc

I am so happy that Lincoln is finally old enough to really enjoy the holidays! He was so excited every time he got to put on his robot costume and luckily he had plenty of opportunities.

Last Friday we went to our ward’s Trunk-or-Treat. Jonathan was out of town, so my friend Nicole came with me to hand out candy at our car while I took Lincoln around. This was my first time trunk-or-treating and, I must say, it was a very nice experience. All of the candy, none of the stair climbing. Plus some people in our ward really went above and beyond to make it fun for the kids.

                                                 

On Saturday we had big plans for more trick-or-treating in Old Town Alexandria, but the rain and snow kept us inside most of the day. We did, however, make it to “Air and Scare” at the Air and Space Museum Hangar in Virginia. It was a really cool event with a lot of people. There were several characters wandering around, including most of the cast of Star Wars, two Predators, and an adult robot (with whom Lincoln refused to have his picture taken). We tried to force Lincoln into taking a picture with Darth Vader, but, turns out, Lincoln is not a fan of Darth Vader. He was a bit upset after the photo, but a treat cheered him right up.

                                               

Lincoln really loved a remote control helicopter someone was flying around. He abandoned his candy bag to chase after it, all the while declaring how cute it was.

Last night we went trick-or-treating with some friends around their neighborhood. Up until this point we hadn’t had any problems with Lincoln’s costume, but almost all of the houses we visited had stairs leading up to them and Lincoln was not incredibly agile while a robot. It made for some slow going, but all of the candy seemed to make up for the inconvenience.

                                         

Lincoln and Bria (a zombie), right before they dug into their spoils.

Lincoln and his totally full trick-or-treat bag after only about one hour or so.