Christmas Preparations

We made a trip to the Washington DC LDS Temple for their Festival of Lights on Monday.  We really enjoyed the concert by violinist Jenny Oaks Baker - it was probably our favorite performance we have seen during this yearly tradition.  Unfortunately, because the concert started at 7, by the end, the girls were getting a little restless and we had to finish watching it standing with them at the back of the auditorium.  Combine the outing with the drive back and it was a late night for them, but I think it was worth it and they both enjoyed the lights and music.

Here's Karina with the life-sized nativity.  She was excited to see baby Jesus and after I pointed out that her toy nativity set had a lot of the same components, she got even more excited since the nativities matched.

Local congregations and embassies provide ornaments and decorations.  This tree had a lot of dolls from all over the world provided by various embassies.  We got a few smiles on camera.

Karina was too excited by all the fun things and other kids.  She wanted to run around and play and we had a hard time keeping her still long enough for a picture (as you can see).

Lydia was a lot calmer and was just excited to be where the action was.

One of the missionaries took a family picture of us - not the greatest picture, but since we so rarely get a picture of all of us together, we have to include it.

In other Christmas news, one of the fun traditions in our new area is the fire departments go around at Christmastime with the fire engines to neighborhood streets with Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus in the fire engines to wave to the spectators and give candy canes to the kids.  We were driving home one night and saw the bright lights and heard the sirens blaring in our neighborhood as the fire engine horn beeped to the tune of Jingle Bells.  We eventually were able to chase the fire engine down and Karina and I went out to meet Santa and she got a candy cane.  She was excited but scared, but now whenever she hears us talking about Santa, she states that she likes Santa.

Here are a few random pictures from around the house.  Karina being buried in her stuffed animals:

Lydia is becoming mobile (at least as mobile as she can be without actually crawling).  She squirms, twists, and rolls her way around and can manage to move around a room  We've also witnessed her "crawling" backwards by sliding. She often (unintentionally) scoots backward 10+ feet in one stretch.  Here she is doing push-ups and getting ready to crawl:

Karina excited about her new hairdo with Mommy's scrunchie:

Lydia had her six month doctor's appointment earlier. For our records as much as anything, here are her stats:

Height: 28 in (99th %)

Weight: 17 lb 9.5 oz (75th%)

Head: 43.5 cm (82nd %)

For comparison, Karina was:

Height: 26.0 in

Weight: 15 lb 4 oz

Head: 45.0 cm

I'm surprised by how big Karina's head was.  Both our girls were/are tall, which isn't terribly surprising.  I'm just glad they are healthy.