Christmas!

I can't believe it has already been a month since we celebrated Christmas!  This month is going by so fast.

After David's intense first semester at law school, it was such a welcome treat to just spend our time in Philadelphia together as a family for Christmas.  On Christmas Eve in the morning we went to the Philadelphia Macy's to see their darling presentation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

We took a lot of pictures, I'll let the pictures do the talking of how beautifully done the little walk-through storybook village was.

In the evening we had our Christmas Eve dinner.  I love our Spode Christmas tree dishes; they are a tradition in David's family and we are given a new piece to add to our collection each year.

Christmas morning we opened all of our presents before going to church.  Josh must have been a very good boy this year....he sure was spoiled!  It was so fun watching him open all of his presents.

Hugging his new little teddy bear from his great-grandma Marilyn.

So many toys!

Here's Josh with all of his Christmas loot!

A December to Remember

We enjoyed celebrating the Christmas season so much this year.  I loved how our row house looked all decorated for the holiday, and I was just so excited for Josh to experience everything the most wonderful season of the year has to offer.

Our pretty tree and the banister with some ribbon and poinsettias attached.

For Christmas David and I gave ourselves a Nikon D3000 camera.  We want to learn to take better pictures with it.  Our tree was a fun subject to practice shooting some pictures in aperture priority mode...I had fun experimenting with the f-stop and trying to understand its effect on a picture.  I love our Radio City ornament from when we went to the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular back in 2009.

Another pretty ornament.

Merry Christmas!  :)

For our ward Christmas party I made these gingerbread boys using this recipe.  They were delicious and disappeared very quickly!  I thought they looked so cute lined up together on our pretty Spode platter.

Josh and Sister Achuff love each other.  

The ward Christmas party was great with a wonderful dinner and a nice devotional.

My Mom and Dad sent Josh this darling nativity set to play with.  It was great to be able to talk to Josh about the Christmas Story while he played with this.

Josh loved playing with it!

David finished his last final on Friday December 23rd.  Afterward we went out on the town to celebrate and have some fun together!  Our first stop was downtown Philadelphia's Macy's store which is absolutely gorgeous.  It houses the world's largest working pipe organ--the Wanamaker Organ.  At Christmastime they have a music and lights show inside the 7-story court of the department store. 

Macy's Light Show from Amy Choules on Vimeo.

The show has been a Christmas staple in Philadelphia since 1956 and it is really sweet.  We all loved it.  Here is the grand finale with all the animated figures lit up!

After Macy's we walked around Center City to see some more sights decked out in holiday style.  Here is the majestic City Hall looking festive with a few wreaths decorating it.

A lovely church and Philadelphia's masonic temple by City Hall.

Game Piece Plaza...so fun!

Josh getting a shoulder ride from David.

At LOVE park there was a fun Christmas village with lots of European shops set up selling food, ornaments, and gifts.

Josh trying to decide what to get at an Austrian chocolate shop.

We ended up getting some chocolate covered strawberries and roasted nuts.  Delicious!

After our time downtown, we headed to the Art Museum for "Art After 5."  Every Friday evening the museum stays open late, and they keep all of the galleries open, have live music in their grand entry, and have tables and chairs set up with great food to order.  We have gone to a couple Art After 5 evenings and it is just spectacular!  It's fun because people get dolled up to attend, and it is fun to pretend we are classy people a bit.  Josh loves the music and all of the attention he gets from the other patrons.

October and November 2011

One fun Saturday in October, David took a break from his studying and joined Josh and me at the Please Touch Museum.  We had a great time!

Josh creating a masterpiece with David.

The Statue of Liberty!

Josh loves this little piano at the Please Touch Museum.  Usually when I take him there we return to play the piano several times.  Josh loves pounding those keys and expects generous applause for each performance!!  :)

Josh and David riding the carousel inside the Please Touch Museum.

Josh was a dog for Halloween.  He was so cute!  We had fun going to our ward's Halloween activity and also the Wharton School's family Halloween party.  Josh loved seeing himself in the mirror and would excitedly say "dog!" when he saw his reflection.

November was very mild.  One very sunny weekend David and I pulled out all of the weeds and crazy plants from our tiny front yard.  Josh loved being outside and did his part holding one of our little shovels and tapping it on the ground!  

Another beautiful November evening we went on a walk on the Schuykill River Trail by Boathouse Row. 

Josh loved walking through the fallen leaves on the path.  I love his little peacoat and hat from Mom Choules!

More fun with the leaves!

We spent Thanksgiving with my longtime friend Jon and his lovely wife Kristie in Arlington, VA.  They have a son who is just 3 weeks younger than Josh.  It was such a beautiful meal and so much fun to spend time with Jon's sweet family--sadly, none of us took any pictures!!   While we were in the area, we went to the DC temple.  It's just gorgeous!

Our family inside the DC temple visitor's center.  It was a Happy Thanksgiving, we have so much to be grateful for!!