DAR Christmas Open House

Karen found out about the wonderful open house the Daughters of the American Revolution throw every Christmas featuring "the most accessible Santa in town." So we checked it out tonight and it was true - no line for Santa, delicious cookies and tea, and a fascinating, if a bit odd, collection of "period rooms" from the early American colonies. Unfortunately we forgot the memory card for the camera, so the shots we got are from our cell phones which, well, don't necessarily handle low-light settings terribly well.

The Christmas tree was beautiful:



Santa was very friendly, but Juliet wasn't necessarily convinced. Fortunately in this picture she's still trying to figure out who he is and what's going on:



For comparison's sake, here's her picture with Santa from last year:



Upstairs they had a tea set for the kids to play with. Juliet had a lot of fun moving the cups around and even pretending to drink from them! Very fun!

Portraits by Claire

Karen's friend Claire offered to take some high quality pictures of Juliet - so of course we jumped at the chance! Here are some of the best ones.

An Early Christmas with Jim, Sara, and Sara

So this past weekend Jim and Sara J. came to town from Dayton, and Sara L. made the flight out from Colorado! We had a great time hanging out and taking it easy. Lots of good pictures, but unfortunately no video.

First Swim Lesson!

So on Saturday, at the JCC, Juliet had her first official swim class! Karen took the plunge with her, while I stayed on the side and took pictures. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first, but warmed up quickly and had a lot of fun!



And a video:

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Well, it's that time of year! Ben picked up a Christmas Tree at the friendly urban gardening hipster mecca, Garden District and brought it home on top of the trusty Hyundai.

We had a lot of fun decorating it, and even managed to get the video recorder out!

And here are some videos:

Aunt Marge's Visit: Turkey, Korean BBQ, and more!

What's Thanksgiving without friends and family? We had a delicious dinner cooked by Karen and her sister, featuring a perfectly cooked bird, stuffing, green bean casserole, and, of course, pumpkin pie!

Juliet had lots of fun with Marge, sharing sunglasses and such:







The next day our friend Derick took us to Annandale, Virginia for some delicious Korean BBQ:







It was a great visit!