Christmas eve, morning and day

A morning guest right outside our window. This Red-Bellied Woodpecker chases all the other birds away and clearly dominates the place until a squirrel comes.

At Mount Vernon, residence of the first president of the US, it was all about a camel. Hosting an exotic camel for the holidays is a long-standing-Mount-Vernon tradition; George Washington rented a camel to entertain his guests every Christmas. We loved petting this cuddly, soft giant. Getting a bit closer.And then way too close ;-)We also enjoyed visiting the third floor of the house--open only in December--and learning the roots of the twelve days of Christmas: there's twelve days between Gregorian-calendar Christmas and Julian-calendar Christmas. This is one handsome Mount-Vernon-model gingerbread house made by the former White house chef.

In the children's room Sonia tried to be Jacky first then she tried being Patsy

then Mrs Washington

and then why not George Washington himself!? Poor papa had to play Mrs...

We watched how real chocolate was made by hand. The Washingtons are said to have drunk hot chocolate every morning. Kids couldn't have any because it was too strong but they were aloud some diluted beer...

At night we burned a fire and had our traditional Christmas story with Handles' Messiah. This time we used Nana's creche. Sonia has been playing with it so when the time came we couldn't find Mary... plus the set didn't include Joseph. Jeremy had to improvise but it turned out lovely.

Santa worked hard into the night. I sewed polar bear car blankies for Feo, Sonia and PJ pants for papa. At about midnight while finishing up PJs, the scissors went right through my left pointer and we had to visit ER but we were back at 3 am.

The morning came and we all went to see if Santa ate his cookies... Sonia left them on the computer desk (to hide them from Mischa) and there were two left with huge bites in them... reindeer bites!

We spent whole day playing with new toys and enjoying our Christmas at home. Little Feo's first Christmas and his big stocking ;-)

Mischa the reindeerMischa is a free dog

Polar bear scarf and car blanket I made for Sonia... she was thrilled and couldn't wait to use them.

Feo needed this car seat blanket... it was so easy to make and I use it every day!

Jeremy in his polar bear pants playing harmonica.Thank you, mom for yummy nuts and Irina for a hand-knit wool sweater for Feo!My mom sent us presents that left me in awe... the wrapping was not of my moms making ;-) Mike did all the work and it made our tree so much more beautiful.

Feo caught smiling...My fave morning shot of papa and Feo

Sonia joined a photo shoot when she saw how much work it took to get Feo to smile on camera.

Next morning everyone was ready to head out of the house... to see trains at the National Botanic Garden, shopping at H&M at a huge Potomac Mills mall and then dinner at our friends house.