Christmas in Virginia with the Stinsons and the Carsons

We weren't always out and about--sometimes we were having fun at home.

Savannah liked playing with the garden fairies.

Both girls took turns shooting the BB gun.

Granddad helping Savannah with her aim.

Granddad also had Sylvia and Andrew help him fill the bird feeder that Tyler made in high school fifteen years ago.

The weather wasn't too cold on the days they were playing outside.

While Granddad did outdoor things with the grandkids, I was in the kitchen with baking projects.

Here the big kids all made and decorated their own graham cracker houses.

Tyler relived his younger years by building some lego projects, like a space shuttle and a pirate ship.

Here's a nice collection of pictures of various adults holding the twins. (Note Tyler's awesome Christmas sweater.)

Lissa with the twins,

and me with the twins. We certainly should have had a picture of Rachel with the twins, since she was with them most of all!!
                            
Another baking project--rolling out Christmas sugar cookies. I don't know where Kiera was.

Our Christmas eve meal.

We all posed for a family picture after church on December 24th.
                                        
The Carson family official Christmas portrait.

We just couldn't stop taking pictures of these two little cuties!

It's kind of surprising that Christian isn't smiling in either of these photos!

I LOVE this picture of Sylvia looking at the Christmas tree in the entry way.

Here's our Christmas tree all loaded up with loot for Christmas morning.

That's more stockings than we've ever had hung up before!

 Here are the four big kids patiently waiting at 7:30am, waiting to go see their presents.

 Some scenes during the gift opening.

 Savannah and Sylvia playing together with their Christmas gifts.

 Andrew and Sylvia with some of their new toys.

 Granddad showing off his new Snoopy nativity set.

    Our traditional Christmas brunch.

 
One last photo of Christian and Melody on their first Christmas. We had a glorious time with so many kids and grandkids here with us for the Christmas holiday!

The Places We Went After Tyler and Rachel's Family Arrived!

After our morning in Hershey, Pennsylvania, we drove back to DC. 

The Stinsons took a few quick pictures at Arlington Cemetery before we went to the airport to pick up Tyler, Rachel and their kids, who flew in from Alabama. 

We decided that was our best chance to go see the lights at the DC temple, so after we picked them up at the airport we drove to the temple in Maryland.

This is Rachel and Christian with a pretty sunset in the background.

This is one of my favorite pictures of that evening, because both Rachel and Christian look so cute.

We weren't able to get any good pictures in front of the Christus statue in the visitor's center, but this was a cute one of Kiera and Sylvia.

The kids made a conga line to follow Granddad!

We didn't get a good picture of Tyler and Rachel's family with the temple in the background.

The Stinsons look good, but the temple is kind of washed out.

A view of some of the lights--this one was near the entry way to the visitor's center.

These were from the parking lot of the visitor's center.

Another view of the lovely lights.

A closer view of the trees from the above photo.

I had some pretty grand plans of where I wanted to take everyone while they were in town, but traffic was so heavy on the freeway that our plans were scaled back and we stayed closer to home.

When the Montana Carsons and the Lees had visited us in 2015 we'd taken them to the Stafford Civil War park, and they'd liked it.

So we took the Alabama Carsons and the Stinsons to see it.

This was a reconstruction of the huts the Union troops made when the camped out in Stafford County.

The cannons are always a hit.

Rachel didn't come with us but stayed home with the twins.

I thought this was a sweet picture of Sylvia. Andrew (age 4) has decided he doesn't like to get his picture taken, so that's why there aren't many pictures of his face.

On another day before Christmas we went to the National Museum of the Marine Corps.

They had a nice Christmas tree out in the opening space.

There are a few places in the Marine Corps Museum that are geared towards children, so that's where we went. Looks like the parents took the opportunity to sit down and relax.

I think this was a mock-up of an airplane.

This was where the kids could go fishing with magnets on wooden fish.

All the kids had fun with that.

Kiera and Savannah testing out what they'd look like as a WWI Marine.

There were some hats and uniforms the kids could try on.

Tyler with his two big kids. Rachel was home with the twins again.

Andrew and Sylvia in a mock-up of a landing craft. The Civl War park and Marine Corps Museum were not very Christmas-y, but at least they were close by!!