Merrrrrrrrrry Christmasssss
2014 | Keyhoe on River Farm
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Friday, December 19
Matt and Emily arrive at midnight.

Saturday, December 20
The Washington Chorus presents A Candlelight Christmas
@ the Kennedy Center. Beautiful processional with LED candles.
The second half in particular held us spellbound.

Dinner @ The Wharf in Old Town Alexandria.
Schele was on a bland diet so stuck to mashed potatoes and steamed spinach while Matt, Emily, and Dan enjoyed a great meal.

Guys against gals pool.
BAM! The gals take the first two games in spite of their skill set.

Sunday, December 21
Guys: football @ Keyhoe on River Farm.
Gals: high tea @ the Ritz.

A rousing game of Hearts.  

Monday, December 22
ICE! Featuring Frosty the Snowman @ National Harbor. 6,500 blocks of clear and colored ice were sculpted into iconic scenes from the animated movie.
A combination of beautiful, cute, and fun.

The Hobbit: Did not meet or exceed anyone’s expectations even the
two who had read the book.

Tuesday, December 23
Murphy and Josie round out the party in the early afternoon. 🙂 

Grandma Max’s goulash for dinner.

Murf and Josie introduced us to the new app game
Heads Up! which was a riot.

Wednesday, December 24
The ‘similar to German’ Christmas Market in Old Town was a total disappointment as was water skiing Santa [fog], so we made an on-the-spot decision to make a farewell visit to Schele’s office in honor of her spring retirement. Lunch in Old Town.

Uncle Tom’s signature spaghetti for dinner. Murf either miraculously got Schele’s stomach bug or lunch did not agree with him, so he was unable to join us for dinner or the guys against gals game of Hand and Foot. Josie was busy going back and forth to the third floor tending to Murf and checking on the rest of us.

Thursday, December 25
Home for the holiday.
We slept late and slowly opened presents and emptied our stockings.

Everyone pitched in and helped with dinner which was delicious.
Dan decorated the table beautifully.

The cookie bake was postponed last night in the hopes that Muyphy would have a quick recovery, which he did, and be able to join us. So, after dinner we decided to bake. In honor or Terrie Pitts, we donned our elastics first and …drum roll please… holiday t-shirts. Schele and Murphy took up the challenge of making homemade Twinkies while the others baked and decorated cookies.

Friday, December 26
After a lazy morning we headed to Arlington National Cemetery to view the wreaths. In honor of the cemetery’s 150^th anniversary, a wreath had been placed at each of the 230,000 graves thanks to Wreaths Across America and the 25,000 volunteers who gave their time earlier this month to place them. Tonight we had a great early 66th birthday celebration for Schele. Hair and make-up by Josie. 

Dinner in Old Town @ Bastille.

A Broadway Christmas Carol @ Metro Stage.

Home for gifts, cookies, and Twinkies.

Saturday, December 27
Fly away home 😦