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.