Tis the Season...

Our holiday season started with our favorite tradition... Christmas tree hunting. Simone had lots of fun running around the tree farm, through the prickly trees.

And once again, we found the perfect blue spruce. Simone supervised the cutting.

And then helped pull it off the mountain.

It took some maneuvering...

And ended with a sweet treat.

Then the week before Christmas we went to the National Harbor for a tree lighting and the ICE show. It was beautiful and super-crazy FREEZING. The ice display was kept a bone chilling 9 degrees farenheit. We wore special parkas to survive ...lol. (Tony barely made it!)

Amazing (and huge) ice sculptures.... absolutely beautiful.

The masterpiece was a life size castle complete with sliding boards made completely of ice.

Simone was so bundled up she couldn't keep herself upright on the ice slide. She came down on her back twice and then decided that wasn't so fun. Look closely to see her -- the pinkish greenish blur at the bottom. lol.

Halloween Triple Play

This year we made up for Tony missing last year's Halloween. And Simone loved every second of it. On 24 October, we went to Boo at the Zoo with Jennifer, Chris, and Madalyn. Simone knew she was wearing a costume for Halloween, but she was more than a little surprised when everyone got dressed up--even mommy and daddy--which blew her mind.

Simone picked her own costume this year. Of all the racks full of costumes, she was NOT leaving the store without this ladybug.

Tony was a celebrity in his sumo costume; and loved every minute of it.

Simone kept her antennas on and held her own bag the whole night...

The next weekend, we took a trip to Hershey Park for "Hershey Park in the Dark". We stayed at Hotel Hershey, which was great. A view of the back of the hotel, complete with iceskating rink.

Still loves waterfalls and fountains...

The main dining room, where we had a wonderful buffet lunch on Saturday ....

Simone loved watching the koi in the ponds...

More trick or treating...

and more rides...

And finally, Halloween night. We got home from Hershey in time to carve pumpkins and suit up for trick or treating in our neighborhood.

We got a bit of rain, but no worries, Simone thought carrying an umbrella with her costume was extra fun!!

And look... a gross, ugly slug found its way onto our jack o lantern, YUCK!!

Until next time...