Happy New Year and Holiday Wrap-up

HAPPY 2019!!!!

Ahhh the holidays! Another season coming to a close--but we've had a wonderful time. Packed full of family, fun, and of course food, how could these not be the happiest times of the year?

We spent much of the week in PA at grammy's house, and Simone got TONS of cousin time.  The kids are all growing so fast.  But they all still love playing with each other.  They all made it onto the "nice list" and Santa was very good to all of them. I felt like we were opening gifts for days.  lol!

Once cabin fever started to set in, we took the chance to get out and hit the bowling alley with the whole gang.  

As well as a giant family dinner at a local Italian restaurant.

Quick flashback, before we left for PA -- our annual cookie exchange.  A great time, once again.  

 This year we made peppermint frosted brownie cookies and chocolate hazelnut pine cones.

Simone with our cookies.

MORE cookies at Grammy's house!

Once all of the Christmas festivities wrapped up at Grammy's we headed back to VA for New Year's weekend.  First up, we decided to make the most the blue, balmy weather on Saturday, and trekked into DC.  We started the day with brunch at Founding Farmers and then walked off our calories marching around the city.  We hit Capitol Hill, the Library of Congress, and then over to the National Portrait Gallery.

It was a gorgeous day and the crowds were extremely light.  So, so nice.... 

We filled Sunday with a final holiday dinner party at our house with friends.  And then slept in late on Monday in preparation for our New Year's Eve celebration.

This year, we decided to go out o the town for the first time since Simone was born.  We found a great family-friendly option at TopGolf just near our house.  It was a super fun night, despite the profoundly raining weather.  We stayed dry, well fed, warm, and entertained until the fireworks show at midnight.  Total success!!

And, finally our last official holiday act... traditional New Year's Day dinner at home.

Voila.  Holidays complete and now back to work and school.  It will be more than a little cruel waking up tomorrow.  But like the song says... every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Christmas Season Going Strong!

Tony returned on Friday from a week at the German Christmas markets, and we decided to keep the holiday spirit high by visiting the LightUp Fest at One Loudoun on Saturday night. It was really cold so about an hour and a half was all we could handle, but it was plenty of time to walk around as well as catch the acrobatic show -- which was our favorite part.

Simone was astonished by the feats of flexibility and strength.

And we ended the evening by trying out the new Slapfish restaurant.  A great place to get warm and fuel up!  Their lobster taquitos were amazing!!

Grilled fish taco wasn't too shabby either ...mmmmmm.

 We hope everyone is taking time this season to relax, have fun, and share the holiday with family and friends.  It's what makes this time of year so special!

Tree hunting!

Our holiday season is moving right along, and today we went for our live Christmas tree.  We were so happy to return to Snicker's Gap Farm with our dear friends who are back in VA this year!! We had planned to go yesterday but got rained out.  Today was still very wet, soggy, and foggy, but we braved it anyway for the sake of Christmas.

First, fueling up with some hot cider.

Then the climb up the hill--which today resembled more of a  mudslide.  But nothing worth doing is ever easy, right?

Visibility was a little limited -- still a good bit of late morning fog.

Surveying the blue spruce kingdom.

We were getting a bit discouraged, but then FINALLY found the winner.

On the way home we treated ourselves for a job well done with brunch at the Leesburg Wine Kitchen.  We opted for hot coffee over wine, but brunch was great!

Fingers crossed, we finish up all of our decorating this week.  We've made a good start!