Winter Wonderland

Today we got over a foot and a half of snow here in DC! The blizzard was ranked in the top ten snow storms in DC history! The city has been almost completely shut down and church has even been canceled, we don't normally get snow like this. My snow day consisted of sleeping in and then eating a delicious french toast breakfast with my roommates, then Jenny and I ventured out into the snow to walk to the grocery store (the roads were far too icy to drive on). We really didn't need anything at the store but it was a great excuse to go out and experience the snow first hand. After we got back from the store we made snow angels, threw snowballs at our neighbors doors, and got into snowball fights. It was great fun!!! The snow was up to my knees out there! Later in the afternoon I went with some friends to see the movie, "Invictus". Due to the snow, we had to walk about half a mile to the movie theater in a foot and a half of snow, I wished that I would have had my snowshoes for that treck. This was the first movie that I have been to since June and I thought it was really good. After the movie was over we went back out into the snow ready to trudge our way back when we came across a bus that was stuck in the snow. We tried everything we could think of to get it unstuck but alas, we failed, it was just to icy. Once my neighbors and I made it back home from the theater I went over to their house and we had some hot chocolate to warm us back up. All in all is was a fabulous day!!!

The National Christmas Tree

This is me in front of the National Christmas Tree, it is so beautiful!

This is the "Utah" Christmas tree

This is me in front of the yule log, it was super warm!

Festival of Lights

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend The Festival of Lights (which is our equivalent to Temple Square) and the Bell Choir Concert-which included some members of my ward. It was wonderful! The concert was so amazing, I am very impressed that they can be so unified and not lose count. After the concert was over we ventured outside of the warm visitor's center and into the cold where our ward had hot chocolate and cookies waiting for us! The lights were so beautiful, the only thing we were missing was the snow!! Inside of the visitor's center they had numerous Christmas trees (I think one from every stake) decorated and spread throughout for everyone to see. They also had many creches (nativities) from around the world that you could look at. It was really neat to see how many different ways you can make a nativity scene and with so many different materials, this one from New Zealand was one of my favorites; it is made out of shells.

Touring DC with the Schwabs

Julie, Austin and Caleb came up Thanksgiving night to spend some time with me and to see some of the sights of DC. It was so great to have them here! We got to go and see Mt Vernon on Friday, which was great because they had just decorated for Christmas. Unfortunately the weather was not that great and we ended up having to wait in line in the rain, hail and bitter cold wind, of course it was sunny when we got there so I left my jacket in the car, not smart!

That night we practiced our culinary skills and cooked a turkey for the first time, it took awhile but it eventually cooked and it was so delicious! On Friday we got up and made a terrific pancake breakfast and then headed out for more adventure. We first went to the US Capitol and walked around a little bit outside, then we walked over to the Air and Space Museum and hung out there for awhile. We took a quick break for turkey sandwiches and then explored the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War and Vietnam War Memorials. It was still a little cold but not too bad. On our way back to the car we also made a quick stop at the Albert Einstein statue. It was great to spend a few days with Julie and her family, so fun!!

Amazing Thanksgiving Dinner

This was my first Thanksgiving away from my family and although I missed being with my family this year, I still had a fabulous Thanksgiving. A couple of guys in my ward hosted a Thanksgiving dinner at their house and it was incredible!! The set up was beautiful, the food was delicious and the company was terrific! I was in charge of bringing the rolls and the pumpkin pies for the occasion, they weren't as good as mom's, but they turned out ok. There were about 14 of us there, and I only knew about half of them when I got there, but it was so great to meet everyone else-including Artie who is the nice old man from up the street who was home by himself for Thanksgiving-he never lacked for anything to say, even during the blessing on the food! :)

Donut Extravaganza!!

Sunday night we celebrated two birthdays for girls in my ward. What better way to celebrate than with homemade donuts? I made two batches of dough and covered the kitchen table with cutout donuts. I underestimated how long it would take me to fry all 81 donuts, plus about twenty or so holes. I only have a small deep fryer and could only cook two at a time! What I thought would take me an hour or so ended up taking almost three! We had the party at my friend Melissa's house and I ended up taking my fryer, glaze and donut dough over to her house so that we could finish cooking them there for the party. It worked out pretty well because then everyone could have fresh hot donuts. I had a wonderful time visiting with people in the kitchen and I think that everyone seemed to enjoy their donuts, even if they had to wait a bit!

My friend Jake helped me fry the donuts.

Pre-Thanksgiving Turkey Bowl

This morning the Colonial First Ward (my ward) took on the Colonial Second Ward in the annual Turkey Bowl. In lieu of this event we sisters got together early for a Relief Society 'meeting' and worked on our football skills. We had some fellow brethren there to instruct us on rules and techniques. While it was very helpful at the time I will admit that when I was in the heat of the moment I didn't think 'hmmm...should I curl or should I blitz?' I basically thought, just run away from the other team. We had enough people from our ward show up to make three teams and still add onto the Colonial Second Ward's team, who only had a few people show up. We had a great time playing though. What a great way to kick off the week before Thanksgiving!

This is a picture of my team, go Gators!!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh my!

So yesterday was a fun and eventful day. One of the things I got to do was go to the DC Zoo with some friends. We parked the car a few blocks away and decided to take the 'shortcut' through the gate that suggested 'pedestrians prohibited'. We split in half to see which way really was faster, and although the shortcut lost, we did get to experience a lovely trail covered in beautiful fall leaves along the way. The zoo here has lots of unique animals to see and we even got to see some of them do some crazy stuff. In the reptile center we saw a legless lizard (looked like a snake) attacking another one. It had blood on its mouth and the other lizard didn't ever move again, I like to think that it was just resting after the attack. Moving on to the elephants. There were two elephants that were separated from each other and one of them was going nuts, it made the loudest noises (which actually sounded like the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park), and then it kept trying to kick the metal door in. We got to see a mother ape with her baby, which was so cute, it acted a lot like a normal toddler. At one point the mother grabbed her by the arm and through her over her back and took her inside, I assume that either was either nap time or she needed to go to time-out. So all in all, it was a great afternoon spent at the zoo.

Happy Halloween!!!

So for Halloween some friends from my ward and I dressed up as characters from the board game, Candyland. I couldn't believe how much fun it was. I think that themed costumes are the best! My character was 'Mr Mint'. I went to two Goodwill's and couldn't really find what I was looking for, I wish we had a DI out here. I ended up going to Target and I found a pair of red and white striped pajama pants and a scarf. I wanted to find a big candy cane to add as an accessory but there was none to be found. Instead I got a shower curtain rod and wrapped some red electrical tape around it. I thought the whole ensemble turned out pretty well (although someone did ask me if I was the North Pole...who dresses up as the North Pole? Maybe that can be next years costume). Everyone in our group looked great in their costumes! We went to a big barn dance up in Maryland for all the single folks in the DC area, it was huge! I had a lot of fun!

Candy Corn Cookies

These are the cookies that I made for a Halloween party. I cut sugar cookie dough (which I colored orange) out in the shape of triangles (I didn't have a cookie cutter so I made one using some heavy cardstock). I baked the cookies and then dipped the big end in chocolate and let that harden. Then I dipped the pointy end in white chocolate and let that harden as well. It was a fun little festive treat!

Pumpkin Custard

On Saturday afternoon Jenny and I went to The Dairy Godmother for some traditional pumpkin custard. Oh my goodness, it was SO delicious!! The Dairy Godmother is a cute little parlor where you can get custard, sorbet, cookies, brownies, etc. They are always rotating their flavors and for Halloween they made pumpkin custard. I savored every single bite of it! Mmmmmm...

Shenandoah

So my roommate Jenny has been trying to organize a camping trip to the Shenandoah's for a few weeks now, but as luck would have it, it rains every weekend. Since fall is in it's peak time right now we really wanted to go to the Shenandoah's and see the beautiful fall colors, so we decided to take a nice Sunday drive after church. It was so worth it! The colors were so vibrant and beautiful and they just went on and on over the rolling hills. There were four of us girls that went and we had a blast walking through the leaves and taking memorable photos. The pictures don't

quite do it justice, but you can get an idea of how amazing it truly is.

It's Saturday Night!

So Saturday I got to go to a 'Saturday Night Live' party. It was fabulous! I was so impressed with all of the people who dressed up like a character from 'SNL'. I went as Penelope (a girl who always has to one-up everyone else). I will admit that I had only seen a few clips of SNL before this party so I didn't know too many of the characters, but I got to know them and I laughed all night long! These are some pics from the party.

My Day Off

I didn't have to go to work today because the Dr was gone to a conference. I had a great day off. The first thing I did was go on a bike ride. I haven't riden my bike since I left Utah. There is a nice bike trail behind my house that I have been wanting to go on it since I moved in. I ended up riding 14 miles! That is the longest ride I have ever been on, and now I am so sore! It was so worth it though, I loved it!! I rode through a park, down past the airport, and along the outskirts of DC. Here are some pictures of the things I saw on my ride.

After my bike ride I came home and got ready for the day and then I went to the temple. It isn't too far from where I live, it should only take about 25 minutes, but with traffic it took me an hour and even longer on the way home (I got done during rush hour, poor planning on my part).

To top off my day, I went to Einstein Bagels and got pumpkin bagels with pumpkin cream cheese (one of my favorite fall time foods). I love everything pumpkin! It was a fabulous day off!!

Eastern Market

My roommate Jenny and I were supposed to go camping this weekend but Mother Nature decided it would be better to create a cold rain that would last the entire weekend and then some. We weren't going to let that get us down so we opted for another adventure. We went to the ever so popular Eastern Market in the District. It's like a year round farmer's market that is held indoors. It was really great. They are well known for their breakfast and so that is what we went for. We stood in a line long enough to make you change your mind about what you were going to order several times. I went for the blueberry buckwheat pancakes with homemade hashbrowns and orange juice. They have quite the system down. They have one big long table for you to sit at and you hope that by the time you get your food there will be a place for you to sit down. What a fun experience! After eating our fantastic breakfast we walked around the rest of the market. They had really great (and expensive) breads, desserts and produce, along with all kinds of fresh seafood and any part of a farm animal that you could want. Eek!

They also had apples that were half the size of my head! We had so much fun!!

My Little Nephew, Caleb

Yes, I am a very proud aunt!!

This is his Halloween costume from Grandma, isn't he SO cute!!

Time-Out For Women

My sister Julie and I went to Time-Out for Women in Richmond and had a wonderful time. They had fantastic presenters, we were uplifted with spiritual messages and music. They even brought a mini Deseret Book with them. I wanted to buy everything there, but I showed some self control and only bought a CD.