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.