Christmas in Maryland

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (a little late). Of course in true Mandel fashion all of my Christmas decorations and the trees are still up. They're fake so I have until at least March right? :) Christmas was great. I spent Christmas Eve and Day here with Logan and then I headed home to have Christmas with everyone there. Was great to see my family after 6-7 months. I beat the snow and headed back out here for New Years Eve with Logan. And now Christmas break is done and I'm first day back to school. I have to admit it's kind of nice though waking up this morning was murder! O.k. enough of all my babbling about nothing. Here are some pictures of Logan and I's Christmas (I was too lazy to take any at home so I'll have to wait for my sisters to send them to me!) The dress up ones are before church Christmas Eve and the others are Christmas morning.

Slumber Party Weekend Cont.

O.k. as you can see I have lots of time on my hands today with it being Christmas break and Logan working. :) I promised to add some of Charlie's pictures from the slumber party when I received them so here goes. These are in Steve Chabott's office, the capital and Hard Rock Cafe. I'm excited to say after knowing them for like 8 years (I think) I finally have a some group shots of my Cincinnati Family.

Zoo Lights and Christmas in D.C.

Another Christmas tradition we started last year was to see the National Tree, Pagent of Peace, and the Capital Tree. Last night was our night to see all of that. Here are some pictures of the National tree and the Capital tree (from a distance- we were too lazy to walk down there). I'd include Pagent of Peace ones, but that'd be too many. I'll just have to bring them home. 2 years ago when we first met our first date (without Jr. high youth group kids :) ) was to go see Zoo Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo. This year they had the same at the zoo out here so of course we had to go. They have a bit to learn to catch up with Cincinnati, but it was still fun to see and to remember back to when we went that first time. Here's a few pictures of that too. Once again way too many to put them all on here so I'm just doing the highlights.

Completed Trees

I promised pictures of the stockings and the completed tree so here goes. As it turns out the stockings are for looks only because they fall down as soon as you put anything in them. Oh well! And no the boys do not have one. Oops- maybe next year!

Our Christmas Trees

Logan has to be on call over Christmas so I staying here with him and going home after Christmas. We decided since we are both going to be here we needed a big tree and stockings. The big tree and stockings are at Logan's so I have a baby one at my house. So here some pictures of our attempt at decorating. It 's still a work in progress, but here's how it's looking so far. You'll have to check back later for the completed Christmas shots.

Christmas in Iowa-Updated

Last weekend Logan and I headed to Iowa to have an early Christmas with his family. We were also able to attend his niece's baptism. It was fun spending time with his family and we had a great time playing with his nephews Jack & Tate. (At two months Peyton is too small to play with). Of course traveling by plane can be an interesting concept. We spent many hours in the airports, had two canceled flights, some missing luggage,and spent the night in a St. Louis hotel. It was an adventure, but makes for a good story. Here are some pictures of his family and our traveling companions waiting for the plane to leave Baltimore. (Thanks Dudley for the use of your backpack!) I'm just hoping my trip home is much less eventful!

Christmas In Old Town

One of our favorite places to visit is Old Town Alexanderia. Every year they have a Christmas weekend. We went last year and decided to make it a yearly tradition. Saturday we headed down there for pizza buffet and some Christmas fun. Pizza was of course awesome and then we headed to the waterfront to see Santa. They brought him in on the fireboat and then everyone had their chance to have their picture taken with him. We even had our picture taken. I think we were some of the only ones without kids. Thankfully the people were lots of fun and didn't mind. Then we window shopped until the boat show. The boat show is really neat. The people who park their boats at that dock decorate them with Christmas lights and decorations and then do a parade. It was fun to see all the different ways they decorated. There was even one decorated to look like Cinderella's carriage. I bet you can't guess which one Logan liked best. Personally I liked the palm tree ones. It was a cold night, but a great way to start getting in the spirit and we drank lots of free hot chocolate. Enjoy the pictures, but no guarentees on how the boat ones turned out. They're hard to get.