Merry everything, my friends!  If you were celebrating this weekend, I hope that you enjoyed a lovely, warm and cozy Christmas with your family – and maybe a white Christmas, if that sort of thing blows your hair back.  (We didn’t have one – the picture above is from a couple of weeks ago – but my parents did.  The kids were jealous when they showed us their snow via FaceTime!)

A Pre-Christmas Kennedy Center Treat

To give you the full picture of our Christmas, I have to rewind to Saturday.  Old friends may recall that last year, I took Peanut to see The Secret Garden at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in D.C.  We had such a fun time on our little mother-daughter outing that I decided to make it a tradition.  (Steve is jealous and has said he wants to get the whole family in on the theatre action when Nugget is old enough.  We’ll see.)  This fall I scouted around the performances at all of our major local theatres and there was a clear winner – Mr. Popper’s Penguins at the Kennedy Center!

Miss Peanut was all dolled up for her first trip to the Kennedy Center.  I made the mistake of playing Hamilton, disc one, in the car on the way to the show, and as we walked through the garage she announced: “Ohhhhhh, I am SO excited to see Hamilton!”  Oops.  A bag full of wooden ballerina figurines made for a welcome distraction.  (Hamilton is coming to the Kennedy Center in 2018, and now we are thinking that instead of making it a date night, we might need to bring our budding theatre geek along.)

Mr. Popper’s Penguins was in the Family Theatre, which I’d never seen before.  We wandered around looking for about ten minutes, then finally found our way to our seats.

Ready for an adventure in Stillwater!

There was a cute little playbill insert with facts about the show, penguins, and Antarctic exploration.

Peanut loved the show.  She was cracking up at the penguin puppets, laughing and applauding throughout the performance.  A definite hit!  After last year’s show was a bit beyond her, I was glad to see her have so much fun this year.  Now I’m more determined than ever to make a Christmas theatre production part of our family’s holiday traditions.

Christmas Eve with Friends

The fun continued on Sunday, with back-to-back social engagements.  A few weeks ago, Zan texted to ask if we’d like to get together for another football Sunday, either on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve.  Since New Year’s Eve doesn’t work for us, schedule-wise, I responded that we’d love to see them on Christmas Eve.  Plans were laid for Zan to bring lunch (a generous gesture that I really appreciate!) and we would provide the TV, drinks and appetizers.  As we were finalizing our football plans, our day suddenly got noisier, cuter and more complicated when I realized that it would be my last opportunity to hang out with my law school BFF, Carly, before she and her family moved to Asia for two years for her husband’s job.  Carly and I quickly planned a morning playdate, and I was thinking that we’d be bidding them goodbye as we were welcoming Zan and Paul over.  But Zan mentioned wanting to see the waterskiing Santa down by the Old Town waterfront.  Since the waterskiing Santa was one of our favorite activities last Christmas, I immediately said we’d love to do that, and Carly liked the idea too.  A friend date mashup!

Carly and I took the kids to the playground first – she has a three-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy – and then met up with Zan, ate a quick lunch and headed down to the waterfront to catch Santa and friends cavorting on the river.

Just as we walked up to the river, the festivities began!  The Grinch on a jetski, elves in a skiff and Cindy Lou Who on a tube, and the main event – Santa and the reindeer on waterskis!

Our little pod was wildly impressed.

(Even Peanut enjoyed herself, although she was just as belligerent as ever when the camera came out.)  Eventually we rounded up our gaggle of children, negotiated meet and greet sessions with a polar bear, a panda, and Rudolph on our way off the dock, and went our separate ways.  I hugged Carly as hard as I could, to squeeze two years of hugs into this one goodbye.  And then Zan and I brought my own kids back for a cozy afternoon at home.

Eventually Zan and Paul headed off to church, and Steve and I tucked the kids in for an early bedtime.  When we were sure they were safely asleep (Peanut) or contained (Nugget) we got to work.  Errrrrr… I mean… Santa came!

I made sure to stay hydrated, which is very important.  After rewarding ourselves for a job well done, we turned in early, expecting a very early wakeup in the morning.

Christmas Morning

The early wakeup came at 6:00 when Peanut crawled into bed with us.  I was really worried that she would go downstairs and start ripping into the presents, but I needn’t have feared.  She was a good, patient girl, cuddling between us until 6:45 when her brother woke up.  He’s still little enough that he didn’t really understand what was going to be waiting downstairs on Christmas morning – but 6:45 is sleeping in for him.  He’s usually up between 5:30 and 6:00, but often earlier.  Sleeping until 6:45, even with his sister’s feet buried in my kidneys, was a nice Christmas gift.

Eventually we found our way downstairs and the kids tore into their stockings.  Santa was very good to them!  They got some necessities – sleeping bags for camping; some school uniform shirts and headbands, and rain boots, for Peanut; snowpants and snow boots for Nugget – but they also got a lot of fun stuff.  Peanut received a doll bed that is an exact miniature replica of her big girl bed; a mermaid tail blanket; a Melinda the Mermaid doll that was very hard to find; and a sweet fairy cottage with its inhabitants from her Grandma – among other things.  Nugget’s loot included a space shuttle adventure cape; a volcano play set with six little fabric dinosaurs and two palm trees; a ferry boat and submarine for the bath; and a beautiful wooden fire station play set from Grandma.

Mom and Dad did pretty well, too!  Steve got camping gear, books and his favorite socks, and I received three new attachments for my GoPro and a huge stack of books.  Santa made sure that everyone enjoyed all of their favorite things for Christmas!

If you celebrated this past weekend, I hope Santa was as good to you as he was to us!  Of course, the best gift is being home as a family, and surrounded by our friends.  Here’s to more happy memories in 2018!

Merry Christmas to all of my friends in the blogosphere!  How did you celebrate?

Silver bells, silver bells, it’s Christmas time in the city…

It’s one of my favorite times of the year, and there is no better place to celebrate the season than my beloved hometown.  Alexandria – and specifically, Old Town – has made it onto “best holiday towns” and “best Christmas towns” lists of such august publications as USA Today and Country Living, because we KNOW how to do this season.  Multiple parades, gorgeous traditional decorations, and Santa waterskiing down the Potomac on Christmas Eve to cap it all off – right?!  There are so many events in Old Town, D.C. and the surrounding countryside that it’s legitimately impossible to do everything, not that we don’t try every year.

The Scottish Walk

This year’s season kicked off with a tree-trimming party with my parents on the Friday after Thanksgiving, but we really got things underway the following weekend at the Scottish Walk.  For the past few years, there have been two parades in the same day in Old Town – the Scottish Walk during the day, and the Holiday Boat Parade of Lights at dusk.  Maybe one of these years we’ll make it to both, but that’s a lot, even for us.  Last year we hit the boat parade; this year, to mix it up, we checked out the Scottish Walk.  We had planned to go with our friends Jimmy and Rachel and their daughter, who is Peanut’s BFF, but Steve wasn’t feeling well.  Not wanting to disappoint the crew, I bundled the kids into their stroller myself, and we set off for the parade minus one adult.

Jimmy, apparently, is a parade connoisseur.   Also he and Nugget liked the same cars.

The parade was a ton of fun.  We saw our Congressman, Miss Virginia, some marching bands, antique cars, and–

Darth Vader!  Nugget shouted, “HEY, IT’S MY BUDDY!” when he saw the Dark Lord walking down the street all decked out in his holiday finery.  Don’t you love the candy cane-striped lightsaber?

It wasn’t just Vader.  The whole gang was there – looking appropriately Scottish in their kilts.  Chewbacca…

Stormtroopers…

Even R2-D2 got in on the kilt action!  I’m guessing he’s carrying spare robot parts in his sporran?

A Snowy Walk in the OT

The following weekend – it snowed!  Before-Christmas snow is a pretty rare occurrence in northern Virginia, so clearly we made the most of it with a walk and some playtime in the park by the river.

The kids were over the moon.  And Mom much appreciated the opportunity to make a list of outgrown winter gear to be replaced – before Christmas.  I think both kids will get another season out of their coats, but Peanut’s hat now perches on top of her head like a pillbox, and Nugget’s mittens are a travesty.  I can tell you that Santa made good use of the early warning.

Being a little taken by surprise – and lacking in the mitten, snowpant and boot department – didn’t stop us from running around and having fun in the snow!

We tacked the walk onto the back end of a Christmas tradition that Steve and I have had since we first moved to Alexandria in 2010 (after five years in the comparatively less holiday-obsessed Arlington).  We used to spend a day wandering the streets of Old Town hand-in-hand and checking out the beautiful Christmas decorations on all of the houses, then have something boozy to drink before heading home.  We skipped the boozy drink part this year, but it was fun to rekindle one of our favorite traditions from the pre-baby days, this time with our little sidekicks.

Snow made it all the more festive.

We started at our favorite place – the fire station!  They had a nod to the season with a little lit sled and reindeer on top of the garage.  So cute.  Smile, boys!

The thing that makes an Old Town Christmas so magical is the history.  People definitely go all out with their decorations, but the whole neighborhood is so historic – it predated the United States of America, after all – that people who live here are committed to maintaining its character.  At the holidays, they do so with lots and lots of decorations, but everything is very understated and traditional.  There’s plenty of fresh greenery and candles in the windows, lots of lovely wreaths, and the occasional strand of twinkling fairy lights.  Taken altogether, the effect is spectacular.

We walked and played in the snow until the sun started to go down, and then headed home by way of King Street, which was lit up like a fairyland.

And stopped to say hi to the big tree on Market Square.

Spectacular!

Christmas in Little Washington

The next day found us bundled into the car, driving out to the mountains for our second parade of the season.  Last year, we attended Christmas in Little Washington, and it was so much fun we knew it had to be a holiday must-do.  We had hoped to squeeze in a hike at Shenandoah National Park before the festivities got underway, but thanks to the snow, Skyline Drive – the main park road and necessary to reach the trail we were planning to explore – was closed.  So no Shenandoah for us.  Instead we slept in (sort of) and had a leisurely breakfast at home before driving out to our favorite mountain town.

Our first order of business was lunch!  We had packed food for the kids, and Steve and I picked up sandwiches from a vendor for ourselves, and enjoyed an al fresco meal in the snow.  Of course, it was a complete circus.  What meal isn’t, these days?

Then we wandered around town looking at the greenery.  The Inn was looking gorgeous, as usual.  Can’t believe that just a few weeks ago, we were actually eating dinner there, thanks to the world’s most generous mother-in-law!

We (and our wet boots and loud children) didn’t go inside this time.

But we did find a magical frozen fountain.

It wasn’t long before the parade began!  We staked out the same spot we’d claimed last year and watched Rappahannock’s finest march by.  Redcoats opened the parade, as usual.  (Steve leaned over to me and whispered, “We’re supposed to boo, right?”)

Checking out the parade route on the map.

There was a tinsel-bedecked tractor…

And another tractor festooned with wreaths and bows…

The sherriff…

Lots of animals (in addition to the Lil Sebastians – which is what I must call all miniature horses, everywhere – there was a posse of riders on regular-sized horseback escorting a tumble-down pile of puppies)…

Nugget’s buddy, Rappahannock 1…

And Santa and the Missus!  I have to admit, I liked their last year’s ride (a vintage green pickup truck) better.  But it’s always a treat to see them.

A Visit to Aladdin the Christmas Camel

Another holiday must-do is a drive down to Mount Vernon to visit with Aladdin, the Christmas Camel.  The short backstory is that George Washington used to procure a camel to entertain his stepchildren, and later his grandchildren, ever year at Christmas.  The estate keeps up that fun tradition and for as long as we have been visiting at the holidays – and this is another tradition that predates children – the camel has been Aladdin.  We saw Aladdin when he was just a baby, for his very first Mount Vernon season, and have come back every year since then (with the exception of our three years in New York, of course).

He’s gotten pretty gigantic!  This year, the estate took the precaution of an extra fence, which I can only imagine is intended to serve as a buffer between Aladdin – who is a very chill guy – and overly inquisitive children.  Not that we know any of those.

After saying hello to our friend Aladdin, we checked out the other fun around the estate.  They had some big cauldrons set up for a cooking demonstration later.

The kids raced around and played tag with a new friend, then we bid Aladdin adieu and wandered off to check out the other creatures on the estate.

Sheep are always a hit.

Walked down to the little beach.  Peanut asked to go swimming.  Ummmmm… NO.

Wandered around the “George Washington: Pioneer Farmer” site for a little bit and then headed back up the dirt road, hoping for a bit more time to spend with Aladdin before we had to go home for lunch.

Unfortunately, someone didn’t want to ride in the double stroller, and he also didn’t want to walk fast (or at all).  He alternated between squatting down by the side of the road and digging in the dirt, and asking for “uppy.”

I finally convinced him to keep up by giving him a “hiking stick.”  Should’ve known from the beginning – if there’s anything the kid loves, it’s hiking.  My nature boy!  He declared that he was “in Shenandoah.”  Oh, yeah – all outdoor spaces are “Shenandoah.”  (And I do mean all outdoor spaces – earlier this week, his nanny took him on the metro to check out a new play space, and he pointed out the trees speeding by in the very suburban neighborhood and informed his [very tolerant] nanny that they were in Shenandoah.  Ha!)

Such a fun morning in one of our favorite places!  We come to Mount Vernon all year round, because we love it so much, but it’s especially magical at Christmastime.  Like all of northern Virginia, really.

We have many more fun activities planned before this Christmas season comes to a close – I’ll have the rest to share with you after Christmas!  Happy holidays to all of my friends, no matter what you celebrate.  And if you’re a Christmas family, like us–

What are your favorite Advent traditions?

(I think that’s the first time I have typed “2018” at the top of a blog post – yikes, are we really doing that?)

Anyway – it’s time!  Time to think ahead to the holidays, which are just around the corner, and then to the winter months stretching ahead of them, to set intentions and make plans.  This month, I’d like to…

• Learn to bake bread.  (I think I say this every winter.  Maybe this time, it’ll happen.)
• Read some Trollope.
• Hike my favorite trail (Difficult Run) at Great Falls, and help the kids earn their Junior Ranger badges.
• Clean all remaining books out of the basement, and make a big donation run to the library.
• Bake with Peanut almost every weekend.
• Decide on a summer vacation destination, and start planning.
• Read my way through all of P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves books, in order.
• Take the kids to play at Badlands.
• Start training for the GW Parkway Classic.
• Do a major toy purge!

There – ten things, and I think a very doable list.  I am not feeling particularly ambitious.  I just want to enjoy my weekends and make some headway on a few projects.  Not too much to ask, right?

What’s on your winter agenda?

Well, we are full-swing into the holiday season now, so I suppose it’s time to say goodbye to my favorite season.  (Although there are still some orange and yellow leaves on the trees around here, and apple cider will be in the grocery stores all winter, so I can have a little bit more fall – right?)  We always try to make the most of the season, and I think we did a pretty good job of that this year.  There are some activities that have become fall “musts” for us – apple-picking, for one, and visits to the pumpkin patch – but we also leave ourselves plenty of room for new experiences.

• The big one: give a heartfelt Maid of Honor toast at Rebecca’s wedding (while wrangling my little flower girl) in Florida and then dance the night away.  Done!  Well, not the part about the toast – it was a really relaxed wedding and I didn’t end up needing to do that, which was kind of a relief.  It was such a joy to be Rebecca’s MOH, and words can’t convey how much I appreciated her including Peanut in the wedding, too.  Rebecca really loves her “niecelette” and it shows.  Peanut was over the moon at getting not only to see her auntie as a bride, but getting to be a part of her special day!  All the feelings.

• The other big one: spend a weekend in New York City and see Hamilton on Broadway!  Done – yay!  This was such an awesome trip.  Steve and I snuck off for just twenty-four hours, stayed in the Library Hotel (I’ve been wanting to stay there for years) and had a fabulous night out at Hamilton, which was an incredible show.

• Take the kids apple and pumpkin-picking.  Done!  We went apple-picking back in September and managed to hit the orchard during prime apple season – imagine that!  No baked goods resulting, but we ate our apples out of hand for weeks afterwards and they were delicious.  And we had fun checking out a new-to-us farm for pumpkin picking on Halloween weekend, and came home with a trunk full of gorgeous gourds.

• Read lots of books from diverse voices.  Done!  I can always improve on this, but I made a point of focusing on diverse books this season, and read over 50% books by writers of color in November.

• Walk to the farmers’ market and do some seasonal baking with Peanut.  Done!  We took plenty of strolls to the farmers’ market, and I’m going to count our fun in the kitchen on Thanksgiving as seasonal baking.  (Hey, stuffing is baked.)

• Run the Dulles Day on the Runway 5K and the Marine Corps Marathon 10K.  Done!  It felt so good to get back in my running shoes.  I pushed the stroller for 3.1 miles at the Dulles Day on the Runway 5K – my first stroller race, although I’ve done lots of stroller running – and had a wonderful time running through the streets of D.C. at the MCM10K.  I even squeezed in one more race – a five mile turkey trot through the neighborhood next door to mine on Thanksgiving morning.
• Spend some time in Fairacre.
• Help my bestie  MOVE TO D.C.  I’m going to say this is in progress and done-ish.  Rebecca’s job start date was postponed, but she’ll be moving here shortly after New Year’s and starting in early January.  I’m already helping, though.  I’ve provided input on neighborhoods, apartment buildings, and commuting routes, and can’t wait to dig in and help her actually unpack and set up house!  She won’t be living walking distance from me as we’d hoped, but she found a nice apartment in one of my old neighborhoods, and we’ll be a heck of a lot closer than when she lived in Virginia Beach and Africa!

• Take the kids to a children’s Halloween party.  Done!  I probably won’t have this on the list next year.  Peanut and her BFF, S, who has attended the party with us for the past two years, seem to be growing out of it.  (Nugget is still the right age but he was in a MOOD this year, which made it tough on everyone.)  It’s a great event for the little ones, and we’re glad that we got to go two years in a row!
• Finally start cleaning out and organizing the basement.

• Take a weekend trip to Shenandoah National Park and help the kids earn Junior Ranger badges.  Hmmmmm – half done.  We did go to Shenandoah National Park over Thanksgiving weekend, and climbed Stony Man Mountain, which was gorgeous.  But Shenandoah’s Junior Ranger program starts at age 7, so clearly that wasn’t going to happen.  (It’s hard enough to convince Peanut to go along with age-appropriate activities.  You should have heard the caterwauling before she finally caved at Joshua Tree.)  This winter, we’ll do the program at Great Falls instead.
• Get an early start on my 2017 family yearbook (instead of waiting until January this year!).  Done – only because I said a start.  I have most of the pictures I’ve taken in 2017 uploaded onto Shutterfly, but the yearbook itself is in a rough shape.  Plenty of time to work on it over cold winter evenings to come.  Uploading the pictures is the biggest pain.
• Play at Badlands on a bad-weather day.

Yay, fall!  I think I did a surprising amount this season – well, maybe not surprising, because I always pack a lot of activity into fall; it is my favorite season, after all.  The highlight, of course, came right at the beginning – Rebecca’s wedding!  We all had so much fun traveling together to Florida and it meant so much to us to share in her special day – especially for Peanut.  Peanut loves weddings and brides, and it was clear that she felt so special and so loved by her Aunt Rebecca, who so obviously cherishes her.  Rebecca already had a special place in my heart, but “make my girl happy” is a surefire way to ensure that I’ll love you forever.  Anyway, enough gushing over my fabulous and kind BFF.  The other highlight of the season was finally seeing Hamilton on Broadway after listening to the soundtrack on almost a daily basis for the past two years.  Seeing the show performed live was everything I hoped for – and more.  The rest of the season was great, too!  We squeezed in our must-dos – apple- and pumpkin-picking, the children’s Halloween party at Lee-Fendall House, trick-or-treating in Old Town.  And we enjoyed some new experiences, too – trick-or-treating at Mount Vernon, the Alexandria Turkey Trot, and sharing Shenandoah with my parents.  I’m never ready to say goodbye to fall, but I can feel peaceful about it if I’ve done the season justice, and I think that this year, I definitely did.

What was on your fall agenda?  Did you get it all done?

Just popping in quickly to say hello – HELLO! – and that I hope all of my friends are having a fabulous day filled with leftovers and family.  We’re getting ready to decorate our Christmas tree over here, and we have fun hiking plans for this weekend – but first, just a couple of photos of our day.  It was a busy one, and I was the chef, so I didn’t snap too many pictures.

Started the day running the Alexandria Turkey Trot, a five mile race through Del Ray (not our neighborhood, but close enough to walk).  Steve and the kids dropped me off near the starting line at the local middle school, and I cranked up my show tunes and enjoyed a brisk run through the streets.  It was a tough race thanks to the freezing cold weather – literally freezing; it was 30 degrees at the start – weird to run in such a chill when just a month ago I ran the MCM 10K under a heat advisory.  My legs felt strong (thank you, yoga and barre!) but my lungs felt like they were encased in ice and I did a lot of walking as a result.  Still was good to get outside and move before the cooking began, and I even saw a colleague from work, who spotted me on the course and introduced me to his running buddy before they cruised on ahead.  So funny to bump into a friendly face in the middle of a big race.  Those experiences are what makes a hometown, and I spent the next mile or so feeling grateful – a good feeling for Thanksgiving! – to live in a place where there are so many people I care about.

I walked home from the finish line and – after a quick shower – rolled up my sleeves and got right to work along with my sous chef.  Cooking and baking is Peanut’s favorite thing to do, and she was particularly pumped to help me make stuffing.  (Unfortunately, there wasn’t much she could do with the stuffing, since so much of it was done over heat.  But she helped with the artichoke dip, the mashed potatoes, and the dessert – apple tart with spiced pastry cream, which we didn’t eat because everyone was too full.)

While Peanut and I were busy in the kitchen, there was silliness afoot in the living room.

It’s not a holiday until someone is wearing sunglasses in the house, and someone else has a trash can on their head, right?  (We hadn’t even opened the wine yet.)

Some other people tried to stay out of it.

End of the day – by 6:00, I had a big and delicious dinner on the table for the fam – turkey, stuffing (which I hate and will never eat, but the rest of the family said was good), mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (with marshmallows, thankyouverymuch), roasted brussels sprouts, celebration kale salad, and cranberry sauce.  Is it any wonder no one had room for the tart?

Happy Thanksgiving, again, my friends!  I’m grateful to have so many wonderful people in my life – and if you read my random musings here, that includes you! 

Happy fall, y’all!  I hope everyone had a great Halloween.  We kicked off the holiday season in grand style with Halloween festivities over several days.  Ready for the usual massive photobomb of a recap post?

Trick-or-Treating at Mount  Vernon

First up on the Halloween agenda was a new-to-us activity: trick-or-treating at Mount Vernon!  We are members, and have taken the kids to special events there in the past, but we hadn’t done this one before.  It looked like fun, so we signed up and on Friday after work, we drove down to the estate with… wait for it, wait for it…

ALEXANDER AND ELIZA HAMILTON.

The costumes were actually Peanut’s idea – well, the Eliza costume was.  Back in September, she mentioned that she wanted to be “Eliza” for Halloween.  Thinking “Doolittle” – an Eliza I didn’t think she knew about, I said, “Eliza who?”  And with great scorn in her voice (is she five or fifteen?) she replied, “Mom.  The Schuyler Sister.”  Ohhhhhh.  Well, once I realized what she meant, I obviously thought it was a great idea, and some googling led me to a “Colonial Lady” costume on Amazon that was just the right shade of blue to serve as an Eliza Hamilton costume.  There was one left and it was her size – done!  And then, as I was adding it to my shopping cart, Amazon piped up with a “suggestion” – would I like a “toddler Alexander Hamilton” costume?  YES.  YES I WOULD.

Mr. Treasury Secretary Hamilton looked very handsome in his gold-trimmed black velvet I KID YOU NOT.

Our first order of business at Mount Vernon was to figure out where the candy was.  They gave us a map of the trick-or-treating, which helpfully plotted out the candy spots, but it wasn’t clear what the candy collection points actually looked like.

Some wandering and running ensued, but we eventually found the candy.  They had volunteers dressed in period costumes standing at various spots, with big baskets of candy.  The kids had fun spotting the actors and going from basket to basket collecting mini candy bars.

Sadly, Nugget no longer says “twee twee!” for “trick or treat!”  But he was pretty cute nonetheless.  A couple of times, he tried to weasel some extra candy out of the volunteers.  They were having none of it.  (At one point, after Nugget tried to reach into a basket and grab a handful for himself, Steve leaned over and said to me: “Hamilton doesn’t hesitate – he exhibits no restraint – he takes and he takes and he takes…”  Haha!)

Eventually, we found our way to Lady Washington, who was sitting by the entrance to the Mansion greeting her guests.  She interacted with the kids in character, and it was amazing.  To Nugget, she said, “You look like a handsome gentleman, in your coat in the new style.”  Ha!  I explained who they were, and she was all over it.  “Eliza!  I knew you before you were married!  I used to call you Betsy.  Betsy, do you remember, I was there when Alexander proposed marriage to you.  Alexander, you were quite a spiffy dresser!”  I was DYING.

She even let Peanut – excuse me, Eliza – hold her parasol.  I’m telling you.  DYING.

All in all, trick-or-treating at Mount Vernon was both hilarious and successful.  The kids came home with bags full of candy and Steve and I laughed at their costumes all night.

Lee-Fendall House Pumpkin Hunt

The Lee-Fendall House children’s party and pumpkin hunt was a repeat event for us.  Last year, we met up with a school friend for the party and everyone had a great time, so we decided to reprise the event.  It was a great event, just like last year.  Unfortunately, our gang wasn’t really up for it this time.  Nugget was feeling emotional about something (being two is complicated…), Peanut was straight-up belligerent, and her BFF was very upset that she didn’t win the costume contest.  BFF’s mom and I decided that we may have outgrown this one (even though it really is a terrific party) and should look for something else next year…

As you can see, no one wanted their pictures taken.

Last year, Nugget won the pumpkin hunt.  This year, Steve was encouraging him to “defend the title” and he gave it a good effort but…

Alas, we did not win.  Unless you count collecting dozens of temporary tattoos as winning, which – actually – Peanut totally does.

The costume parade was adorable, too.  Peanut and her BFF – the witch – had fun marching around and showing off their costumes.  But they were on the older end of the partygoers, and I think we’ll definitely find something for older kids next year.

Pumpkin Picking at Wegmeyer Farms

Back this summer, I made plans to meet up with a sorority sister – who I haven’t seen since graduation! – and her family to pick pumpkins at Butler’s Orchard, where we picked blueberries over the summer.  As our fall schedules filled up, it got harder and harder to coordinate, but we really wanted to make it work so that our kids could meet – she has two little girls, one a little older than Peanut and one around Nugget’s age.  It turned out that the Sunday before Halloween was the only day we could all do, so we planned to head up to Maryland then.  Unfortunately, that Sunday ended up being rainy and gross, and we called it off when we saw the weather reports.  But we still needed pumpkins, so we hastily rearranged some plans and headed out to Loudoun County, Virginia, to collect our pumpkins from Wegmeyer Farms on Saturday afternoon instead.  (It was just our family, as sadly, my sorority sis and her fam were booked up on Saturday – hence the original plan to go on Sunday.)

The pumpkin field was small, but was dotted with pumpkins of all sizes, shapes and colors – I’d never seen such variety at a pumpkin patch before!  It was simply beautiful.

The kids wanted to ride down the hill in the wagon.  I tried pulling them myself, but I couldn’t control the wagon – don’t let the angle of this picture fool you; the hill was STEEP.  So we called in the big guns – Daddy!

About halfway down the hill, we stopped and let the passengers out.  Peanut and Daddy continued walking down the hill to check out more pumpkins, while Nugget and I decided there were plenty of good options right where we were.

Nugget was a man on a mission – to find the biggest pumpkin in the field.

There were some gigantic gourds.  (You bet I coordinated my sneakers to our activity.  Doesn’t everyone?)

Nugget and I agreed on a reasonably large pumpkin and then Peanut returned to look for one more family pumpkin.

This one is huge, let’s get it!

I love this picture – it captures them so perfectly.  Mr. Personality and Lady Belligerent.

Back up the hill!

Up at the farm store, they had mums, small gourds, and cider donuts – among other treats.  We bought a “pink porcelain doll” pumpkin because they supported breast cancer research.

And we picked out a few small gourds for a little seasonal tabletop display, meaning that I have officially become my grandmother.

Pumpkin Preparations

On Sunday, we settled in for a rainy day at home.  My friend Zan had texted on Friday and asked if we wanted to get together for the football game – or, more specifically, for the guys to watch the football game while the girls hung out and chatted.  With our original Sunday plan having been rained out, we were totally up for some friend time.

Zan promised to bring a red lentil chili, so Peanut and I assigned ourselves the task of baking cornbread and gathering the other accompaniments – cheese, yogurt, and crispy onions (which I actually forgot to set out).  Once our friends arrived, we got down to the business of having fun.  The boys turned on football and the girls sipped bourbon, apple cider and rosemary cocktails (well, the grown-up girls did), ate chili, and baked pumpkin muffins with Peanut.  Such a fun day!  It’s always a blast hanging out with Zan and Paul – I’m so glad we’re all together in D.C.

On Monday, we brought our pumpkins inside for a sticker-fest.  One of these years we will carve the pumpkins again, but for now – stickers are a lot cleaner, safer and less hassle.  (I do plan to cut the pumpkins open and scoop out the seeds for roasting, eventually.  I won’t go without my roasted pumpkin seeds, even if we don’t carve jack-o-lanterns!)

Trick-or-Treating!

Finally, the main event!  On Tuesday, we dressed the Hamiltons up for another venture out on the town.  There is a street in our neighborhood that closes to traffic and turns into a big block party – the houses go all out with giant candy cauldrons, wild and weird decorations, lights, fog – the works.  We checked out the scene last year and obviously that had to happen again.

We started from the south end of the street this time, and it was a circus!

Refusing to smile for pictures.  Sigh.  Can’t win ’em all.

Eventually, after about thirty minutes of searching and exchanging text messages and bumping into several other people we know, we found Peanut’s BFF and her family – our trick-or-treating buddies.

The Hamiltons and their witchy friend had their game faces on.  I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Everyone loved Nugget’s costume, but only a couple of people actually got what the kids were without being told – I was surprised!  I thought that more people would catch on, given how popular the Broadway musical is – but a few did.  One kid shouted “They recreated Philippa Soo’s costume!” and that was the only person to get it based on Peanut.  Two people called out “Is that a little ALEXANDER HAMILTON?” when they saw Nugget, but he also got asked if he was Patrick Henry, George Mason, and Liberace.  We also saw (an adult) George Washington, who called, “Hey, you’re from… my period!” – to which I responded, “This is your right-hand man, Alexander Hamilton.”  Ha!  Once we explained to folks who the kids were supposed to be, everyone loved their costumes.

BFF’s dad had it goin’ on with his wig.

We went door-to-door collecting candy (and got enough to last the kids until Christmas!) until the sun set and it was legit dark – and with a wilting Founding Father and wife in the stroller, headed home to see if we got any trick-or-treaters of our own (we got two groups, for five kids total – an improvement from last year, when we only got one kid!).

Happy Halloween, one last tiiiiiiiiiiime… BOO!

Apply Dapply, a little brown mouse,
Goes to the cupboard in somebody’s house.
In somebody’s cupboard, there’s everything nice:
Cakes, cheese, jam, biscuits – all charming for mice!

~Beatrix Potter

On the fall agenda, there are a few perennial must-do items, and apple picking is one of them!  We’ve picked at a few different places in the past few years, and when we discussed where we’d get our apples this year, we were torn between three options – going back to Crooked Run, the Loudoun County orchard we visited last year; checking out the scene at Butler’s Orchard, where we picked blueberries; and trying out a new location.  Since we want to pick pumpkins at Butler’s, we decided to look for a new spot for apples, and Steve hit on Waters Orchard, which is right next door to Butler’s.  As always happens in the fall, I’m behind on posting our family fun, so this was a few weeks ago – but a few turns of the way-back machine and here we are!

The first thing we saw upon arriving at the farm was a big tractor with a large hayride wagon attached to it.  The boys had to check it out.

And since the Jonagold apples were on the far side of the orchard (still walkable, but you know) we hopped on for a ride.

Rollin’ with the homies…

We all had fun, but a certain someone had the most fun.

So excited he had to make “kindergarten face.”  Oh, brother!

The hayride was over way too soon, but it was fine, because we found ourselves at the Jonagold apples!  This was the first apple orchard I’ve ever visited that had the apple trees trained.  I really liked it – made it much easier to get to the fruit.

The hardest thing about picking at Waters Orchard was refraining from picking every single apple – they were all gorgeous.  I don’t know if it was the trained trees, the fact that we came right in the middle of picking season instead of at the very end, or just a good orchard – but their fruit was really nice.

Peanut has been a pretty reliable picker for awhile now (both of apples and other fruit and flowers when we’ve checked out various pick your own farms throughout the year) but this was the first time that Nugget was legitimately helpful.

When did he get so big?  Hold me.

Peanut was all business.  She was a picking machine and kept up a constant stream of chatter about her baking plans.  It seems we will be making applesauce and pie and apple cake.  We might need to pick more apples.

I really wanted them to stand together for a picture.

This was the closest I could get them to stand to each other.

When is Mom going to be done with the pictures?  (Never, kids.  I will never be done.)

After we’d half-filled our bags with Jonagolds, we walked back to the front of the orchard to pick Hudson’s Golden Crisps.  I’d never heard of them, but I was sold immediately when I read the orchard’s description of them as having “a pear-like flavor.”  Asian pears are my absolute favorite fruit, so anything that even approaches mimicking them is clearly on my must-try list.

Also, they were gorgeous.  I started asking one of the orchard employees where they were, then cut myself off and said, “Never mind – I see them.”  She laughed and replied, “Yeah, they stand out.”

Verdict?

Absolutely delicious.

Thanks for a fun family morning on the farm, Waters, and thanks for the half bushel of deliciousness!  Fall baking, here we come…

Did you go apple picking this fall?  What are your must-do fall activities?