Visiting the White House at Christmas with the Stinson Family

The Stinsons wanted to visit the White House during their time in Virginia, so we went in the morning on December 19th.

I've toured the East Wing of the White House several times, but it was the first time for Kent and the Stinson family.

 This was the official sign for Christmas at the White House, 2017.

 The words on the sign aren't very clear, which is why I took the photo of just the sign.

We went through several security checkpoints before we could go inside.

This was the first entry way we went through.

 There were dozens of Christmas trees throughout the White House.

 The fireplace mantles were all elegantly decorated. Note Kent in the background.

Looks like Jason and Kiera photo bombed me in this picture. This photo was taken in the Blue Room.

 Tree in the Blue Room.

Lissa and Savannah in the Red Room.

 The Red Room had a candy can theme.

Loved this view of the White House nativity and a portrait of George Washington.

 And another room with a portrait of Abraham Lincoln.

Awesome back drop for a family picture!

 Another nice back drop--the replica of the White House in gingerbread.

 This hall was filled with lovely flocked Christmas trees. That's the view of into the room with the Nativity scene.

 This is the view facing the other direction.

I saw a cute little girl standing next to this tree!

Another good photo spot, with the seal of the President of the United States above us. It was very exciting to see the White House decorated for Christmas!

We made a couple of other stops in DC that day, including the Smithsonian American History Museum.

There's a temporary exhibit called "Religion in Early America"

 It had a portrait of Joseph Smith and a copy of an 1830 first edition of the Book of Mormon.

 I took some pictures before I noticed the sign that said "No photographs."

These are some Kirtland currency from 1837.

We also toured the exhibit of the flag that was flying over Fort McHenry when the "Star Spangled Banner" was written by Francis Scott Key.

The Stinsons made a quick dash through the National Archives to see the original documents of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. It was a day full of highlights!

Christmas Fun in Pennsylvania with the Stinson Family

We took the Stinsons up to Pennsylvania to see some Christmas-y sights there and to add another state that Kiera and Savannah had visited. 

Our first stop was at a master watchmakers shop in a small town in PA which was on our way to Hershey. Jason has become a connisseur of fine watches and had learned about this man on the internet. He was very excited by the opportunity to meet such a fine craftsman and spent about half an hour with him.

We arrived in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in the early evening and checked into our hotel. We then drove over to see the "Hershey Sweet Lights", a Christmas light display to drive through.

It had just opened so it wasn't crowded and we could drive at our own pace.

Here a just a sample of the light displays we saw:

It took us about 30 minutes to drive through it, so it was a large exhibit!

Next we drove about an hour to the town of Bernville, Pennsylvania. This is the sight that greeted us as we came over a hill, so we knew we were in the right place!!

When Kent and I were in Pennsylvania last year I picked up a flier about this Christmas village, so I added it to our list of places to go see at Christmas time.

I think it started out as a farm who put out lots of Christmas decorations, and just kept growing and growing.

It's always tricky to get a group photo at night, but this one didn't turn out too badly.

There was a pond behind us, which can also be seen in the first photo.

Savannah as an angel.....

and Kiera as a nutcracker.

A good view behind us of the lights.

I was happy to see there was a nativity scene.

It was hard to get a picture that showed the true magnitude of the excessive Christmas lights!

They've been doing this for 70 years now.

Of course Santa was found at the Christmas village!

We spent the night in Hershey and got up the next morning and went to Hershey's Chocolate World.

Lissa had been there before when we took a family trip there in 2003, but I don't know how much she remembered about it.

We hadn't been there at Christmas time before, so we had to pose in front of the Christmas decoration.

There are several things to do at Hershey world that cost quite a bit, but we opted to go on the free ride that shows how chocolate is made.

I didn't put in the pictures of the singing milk cows, but thought I'd put in the singing Hershey's kiss! As a bonus they give everyone a mini Hershey's candy bar at the end of the ride, then dropped us off at a gigantic Hershey's candy store, so of course we bought some.
We headed back to Virginia after having a great time in Pennsylvania.