The Holidays are Here!

Early last week Corey got a fancy new camera so he took a house Christmas photo for us. Thought I would share that with all of you:

This week has been a blur of after work activities - most of them relating to the holidays. Monday was my evening to cook so I threw together an elaborate meal of spaghetti and garlic toast. In a random turn of events everyone was home so we played a game after dinner. Generally at least someone if not multiple people are busy in the evenings (except Thursdays which are reserved for house night).

Tuesday was my small group's Christmas party. We decorated cookies and had a White Elephant gift exchange. I left with a nice wooden bracelet from Africa I believe. Other popular items were a set of 22 tea candles, a slightly tacky santa advent calendar, the book Feminism is for Everyone, a Red Skins shirt, and many others.

Wednesday evening our office went to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to go bowling. You may be thinking "That's strange - thought that was an office building for white house staff and the VP" Well you are correct, but it just so happens to also have a bowling ally in the basement (which is connected to The White House!). One of my coworker's husband works for the administration in a different building, but still gets the perks of being able to reserve the alley. I even got a strike on my second frame! It was pretty awesome, but it is rather small and since we had little kids along and there is no electronic scoring we didn't actually play a game - it was just a free for all. Also the lanes tilt to the left - warning to all of you who may one day play there.

Tonight is our house gift exchange. We always seem to be running out of cups or washing them more than we need to simply because we don't know who's is who's. We are solving this problem by exchanging cups. We drew names last week so tonight we get to see what beverage container we will each now be using for the foreseeable future. I had Cara's name so I got a plain glass cup and then I used my etching cream to decorate it. I will snap a few shots of our new glassware tonight a post it soon.

Snow Day!

Once again these east coast people don't know how to handle a little snow. The government and schools have closed down because we are expecting an accumulation of 2-4 inches by the end of today. Right now my view looks like this:

Yes it is snowing, but who can't drive in that? Or walk to school? I think this is ridiculous, but hey, who am I to complain about getting a snow day?

This is also an opportunity for me to catch up on here. I know I said I would put up Thanksgiving pictures like a month ago, and so finally here they are:

Anne made three beautiful pies!

They were pumpkin, pecan, and apple. Grace also made a pumpkin cake. 

Here is the big spread! There was another turkey, bowl of potatoes, pan of stuffing, and dozens more rolls still out in the kitchen. For 13 people we made about twice as much food as we need. 

But no worries - the leftovers were gone by Saturday afternoon.

Busy Time of the Year

I am shocked that November is over already. I have pictures from Thanksgiving which I will post on here as soon as I have the time. I have been doing well and work is good. A few things that have happened/are happening:

*At work we received a really awesome 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant. This is going to guarantee our continued work for the coming years. We are going to be hiring on another full time office worker to oversee the grant and our staff at some of the program sites will get increased hours.

*On Thanksgiving the MVS house hosted a feast! We had around 9 different dishes for the 13 of us who were there. I was a lot of fun - lots of work, but still a lot of fun. Four of the guests were staying at the house which really filled it up.

*Corey learned that he will be heading to London in January to work. I really don't know what exactly he will be doing, but he will be there for 6 months. I am not looking forward to being in a long distance relationship once again but I am planning on visiting him in April so that will be awesome.

*Kid Power programs are having their holiday parties next week so we are working on getting all the gifts for the kids. On Monday we have a group of volunteers coming to wrap all the gifts. Hopefully they are able to make a big dent - not sure they are going to be able to finish them all in one morning.

*On Saturday I am taking Corey to the Kennedy Center for NPR's A Jazz Piano Christmas. I am really looking forward to it. The weather has been rather warm here so I am finding it difficult to get into the Christmas spirit, but this should help.

*I only have 3 more weeks of work before I our office closes for the holidays! In 18 days I will be flying down to Florida to spend the holidays with my family. I will be there for a week and then have an additional week of relaxing before going back to work.