A 25 Days of Christmas Interruption Post

There isn't a regular 25 Days of Christmas post tonight.

We attempted reading tonight...he* wasn't having it.  Oh well.  He went to play on his own and I did my own thing, too.  

*he=Marshall, not Matt.

We're only 8 days in, and I've beaten myself up a handful of times already for not reading a Christmas book or getting a post up.  But you know what?  Life happens.  Life will go on if I don't post 25 different posts for 25 straight days.  Maybe next year (I'm not holding my breath, though).

There are just always going to be nights when Marshall is too fussy or too active to sit still and listen to me read a book. There are lots of times when he's MUCH more content sitting by himself and flipping the pages and "reading" on his own.  And hey, if he's happy and content, then I'm not disturbing him.  Let him be.

Then there are days/nights that are extremely busy and wear us ALL out and we ALL just want to call it a day and go to bed.  I need to make myself take a chill pill and just go to bed those days, so I can be refreshed for whatever this crazy kid will do the next day!

So, the next time we read, we may or may not get completely caught up on all the books we need to have read.  All we can do is try and see what happens!

25 Days of Christmas: Day 5

The Santa Clause movies are some of my favorite Christmas movies! The 2nd movie is my favorite, so it bums me out that really only the first and third in the series are showed on TV!

When I saw this book at 2nd and Charles a few months ago, I had to have it! Tonight's book: The Escape Clause: A Very Merry Frostmas.  And poor little Marshall is half asleep, drinking his bottle.

25 Days of Christmas: Days 1-4

I started getting bummed out that we missed Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 of this, but you know what? Life happens. We've been so busy lately just had Marshall's first birthday, so that's where our priorities have been. But have no fear, we're back for another round of 25 Days of Christmas!

If you've missed my past editions of 25 Days of Christmas, here's what I've done in the past, and the links to the first post of each series if you wanted to read through:

2009--different Christmasy things done each day. You can start with the first post here.

2010--favorite Christmas songs. You can start with the first post here.

2011--favorite Christmas ornaments. You can start with the first post here.

2012--favorite Christmas movies. You can start with the first post here.

2013--different Christmas cookies/treats each day. You can start with the first post here.

2014--different Christmasy things done each day. You can start with the first post here.

2015--sorry, was preoccupied December 2015 ;)

So now, here’s what we’re doing for 2016’s 25 Days of Christmas: 25+ Christmas books!! I say 25+ because let's be honest, I just love Christmas too much and have tons of Christmas books myself and that I've bought for Marshall, haha. Tonight, we caught up on the past few days of missed reading, but we're back on track now! We read:

1. The Elf on the Shelf - A Christmas Tradition Marshall's elf is sitting out watching him every day :)

2. Winnie the Pooh - The Sweetest Christmas

3. Toy Story - Woody's White Christmas

4. Paw Patrol - The Pups Save Christmas Marshall received this for his birthday yesterday, so it was only appropriate to add it to our book line up!

Stony Point Christmas Tree Lighting

Anyone else feel like the month of November has just FLOWN by?! I can't believe Thanksgiving is next week!

I'm so ready to start putting up Christmas decorations, though!! Maybe some this weekend?? ;)

We started our Christmas festivities last weekend by heading out to Stony Point for the tree lighting.  We'd never been to this tree lighting before, so it was nice to go to something new!

Little munchkin all bundled up...even brought out his Christmas blanket ;) 

I loved seeing the tree lit up with just the white lights...

 ...and then with red added in!

So thrilled...haha. Just getting tired!

Can't wait for all the Christmas fun to come this year!!

Washington DC Anniversary Trip

Several weeks ago, Matt and I went to DC to celebrate our anniversary.

Wait, yes, our anniversary was in June, but we haven't had a free weekend to go somewhere fun to celebrate. In June, we did do our traditional brunch at The Berkeley, but we still wanted to go somewhere. For our first anniversary, we went to Disney and the second, Myrtle Beach. We knew this year wouldn't be overnight or even for several days, so we just waited until a free Saturday came around (those are rare these days!!).

We started the day by going to Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken...but we only got doughnuts ;)

PB&J doughnut and Maple Bacon doughnut!

I don't know what other events or festivals may have been going on that weekend, but it was insane trying to find parking. The last time we went, we were spoiled and found a parking spot right on the National Mall. It took us 45 minutes to find a spot this time, but in the end, it was worth it, because it was a nice walk from the car to where we were headed.

We only went into one museum, but it's okay...time for another trip to go to the museums we didn't get a chance to go to ;)

This aquarium scene was awesome.

Of course I had to take a picture of this rock...

The whole rocks, gems and minerals exhibit is my favorite to look at!

On our way to see the White House, we stopped for lunch.  There were food trucks everywhere, so we decided to skip the places I'd researched ahead of time, and just grab a quick lunch from the trucks.

After that, we finally got around to the front of the White House, only for there to be protests right out front. Ya gotta especially love election season.

Then, on the other side of the street, were kids playing street hockey, so we watched them for a little bit.

Heading around to see the Jefferson Memorial...

We had a great day in DC finally celebrating our 3rd anniversary. Can't wait to see where we decide to go for our 4th!