The Kennedy Center

We walked from The Cheesecake Factory to The Kennedy Center to try to get tickets for the Messiah Sing-along and got the prettiest sunset!

One of my relief society presidents told me about this free concert a few years ago and I’ve wanted to check it out, so I was excited because I’ve never been. But whomp, whomp, we didn’t get tickets. We ran into Brenda’s family there too and they didn’t get tickets either, so it was just one of those years. 

Instead we headed upstairs and checked out the museum area and the rooftop. 

These sketch machines were so fun!

You can always see who was close to me. 🤣

We caught the Kennedy Center shuttle and then had a short walk to our car. We decided instead of stopping somewhere for dessert that we’d go to the grocery store and let everyone pick out whatever they wanted, which was still way cheaper than going out. It was the perfect Santa gift day and Santa will be bringing experiences forevermore. 

I had never thought about this! 👇🏻🤣

On Christmas Eve this fun picture came up in my memories and got me in my feels. I’m so grateful for all the time we were able to spend with my dad. We miss him so much. 

Ice!

We always give a family gift from Santa and this year I came up with a fun experience. We had to do it before Christmas because we’ve got big post-Christmas plans, so Rainbow Ellie Sparkles brought the gift from Santa on the 23rd. 😉 

We got tickets to Ice! at Gaylord. 

I got a package for us to do the ice slide and scavenger hunt too, so that’s where we started. 

It’s funny because since we’ve lived in the same place for almost 16 years and we kind of have 2 sets of kids, we’re doing most of these big once in a lifetime experiences again. 

The ice slides were actually more fun that I thought they’d be. 

And then we walked around looking for scavenger hunt clues. 

Ice was a Peanuts theme this year, so these snoopy signs were the clues. 

The whole hunt was weird, it didn’t make sense and there was no key and the clues weren’t numbered. 

We talked to lots of fellow scavenger hunters and got lots of different answers, so we weren’t the only ones struggling. 

Lanes went into the store for a more abstract shot. 

It’s so pretty! It was a really fun day taking in all the beauty. 

Even though the scavenger hunt was lame, we still finished it. 💪🏻 

I made the girls take pictures with Santa and we were cracking up at “Donders” picture. All the other names were correct, so this was just a mistake. And this wasn’t the only lame thing, which is pretty lame because Ice is $$$.

Our Ice time was like 12:30, which ended up being perfect. 

We had a short line comparatively and we had just enough time doing everything else. 

There were a few activities to do in line, but not nearly enough. 

Styling!

It’s so cool!

It really is a unique and fascinating experience. 

And it’s really really cold inside. Which is obvious, but it was still shocking. 

When I took my hand out of my pocket to take pictures it got so cold it almost burned. 

We did ice slides inside Ice too but they were lame and sloooow. 

Just being Linus. 

Smizing. 

We loved it. 

The girls didn’t remember ever going there, so it was a really fun day. 

I looked at staying the night, but they didn’t have any rooms for 5 people. Or at least I couldn’t find one, which was weird because we stayed there with 6 of us back when we were a family of 6. 













I actually didn’t even remember the clear nativity, but it was gorgeous. 

It was an absolutely great day. 

And then as we left there was the world’s longest line! It was out of control, seriously. They had managers conversing about it, that line had to have lasted 4 hours long, if not longer. I can’t imagine how they handled that or why it happened, but we felt so lucky!

We left Gaylord at 1:30 and headed to Cheesecake Factory which was also amazing, obviously. And then we had more fun plans for the rest of the day!

Christmas’s Sunday and a Hot Chocolate Stand

The Sunday before Christmas was lovely. We had one hour church and the choir sang a ton, and Matt had joined the choir, so that was fun. 

Frankie’s always had a really sweet bond with the little Aina’s. ❤️

I love celebration Sundays. Everyone stays to visit and everyone is cheery and old friends come back to visit and it’s like a beautiful ward family. 

It feels like we’ve watched the Martines take pictures in front of this tree every year, and many years we’ve joined in with them. *courtesy of Ellie M. 

Because of everything with my dad and just December busyness, we didn’t do our hot chocolate stand until Christmas Sunday. 

And it actually was my favorite year yet. Everyone was home to help - before and after, and we had steady business the whole 2 hours. 

And we made $335! The only year we made more was when grandpa Ray and his friends matched out efforts and we were able to donate $500 to Grandpa Rays computer lab in Ghana. Every year I wonder if anyone will come and I worry that we won’t make any money, but really the amount we make doesn’t matter. We started this as a way to give back as a family and teach our kids to serve and that’s what’s important to us. 

Anyways, this has been such a fun tradition that we’ve done for the past 9 years. 

And finally, Rainbow Ellie Sparkles had fun with our cute little buddy elf - Larry Glitter Glamour all month long. 🎅🏻