And it came to pass in those days:

I figure I had better blog about Christmas while we're still in the same decade.

We had Christmas at Blake's parents' house this year.  It was great fun with all 8 nieces and nephews there.  They all participated in the nativity at the house (which I thought was a miracle, seeing as my brothers and I never would have cooperated with that in a million years).

Ella and Coco were angles.

James was a wise man...bringing gifts of gold-wrapped chocolate to the newborn king (although most of it ended up melted on wise man's hands and then smeared onto the toilet later...--wait, I hope that was chocolate...)

Andrew was a shepherd.

Morgan was Mary and baby Harry (one week old) was baby Jesus.  Good job, Harry.  No crying he made.

Here come the wise men and shepherds to visit Mary and Jesus (no Joseph this year.  Jack was going to be Joseph but then decided at the last second he wanted to be part of the shepherd crowd, so Mary was a single mom this year.)

Mary did an excellent job holding Jesus...even when the angles got curious and tried to steal him away.

But all was well, and Jesus was safe, and the angles were still happy.

I'd call it a success.

Also a part of the evening was the fabulous salmon dinner and ice cream sundae dessert (yay, ice cream on Christmas!) that Blake's mom cooked.  Here she is in all her Christmas-tabled glory:

Here I am, looking a little stunned (I've been hard pressed to take a good picture lately...my new Maryland drivers license can second that statement), and wishing I could take credit for the decorations.

Here are the munchkins at the kitchen table, furiously coloring in the 12 days of Christmas so they could hold up their sign at the correct part of the song.  I was also surprised how well this went.  There was only minimal pinching and poking, and little to no crying.

Here is Sydney shooting at us with the air gun (my favorite present that we gave the kids...and judging from the use it got on Christmas Eve, it was their favorite too --well done me (pats self on back)).

And so it was a Merry Christmas for all, and for all a good night.

Snow Day

I had originally planned to post this last week, but, as always, my life got away from me and here I am attempting to post it a week later.

Here are some photos of our huge storm last week.  Huge meaning church was cancelled on Sunday and work was cancelled on Monday.  I think it was actually the largest snow fall in one day in DC in recorded history.  Neat.

We were snowed in all weekend.  As an added bonus and a pre-Christmas (excuse me, ahem, pre-Holiday) gift, the government and Georgetown Law gave us yesterday off.

Not that we could have made it to work anyhow:

Our branch of the red line was closed.

The one snow plow in Montgomery county still has not made it to our street. 

We do not have an SUV.

Even if we had walked to where it's cleared, taxi cab drivers like to capitalize on such times and have temporarily raised their rates through the roof.

Thank goodness GULC follows the federal government inclement weather policy.  It wouldn't have been a true snow day without my Blake.

For those of you that are wondering, we did in fact have a Christmas tree.  I love it.  I think I'd want to keep it up year round if this darned humid climate hadn't already made it smell like mildew.

For those of you who want to see more Christmas pictures of our house, you can go to my other blog (private).

We thought this was ironic.  As if anyone could park here anytime.

Here is my Blake, all bundled up, braving the front walks for the THIRD TIME.

Our car.  Hello little side mirror.

Red Christmas House.

Our side yard.

More of the side yard at the beginning of the day.  By the end of the day the bench was completely covered and the snow reached halfway up that fence.

This is what it looked like when we opened our front door.  It took some finagling to get us out.

Looking down our street at all of the snow-swaddled (look at me, using my Christmas words!) cars.

This is what I look like when I haven't showered or changed out of my pajamas for two days.  Gimme a break...we were snowed in...

We had to spend quite a bit of time breaking icicles off of our bushes and plants so that they wouldn't snap in half.

Peace on Earth

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

It's also beginning to look like no church tomorrow, and maybe no work on Monday.

A Pre-Christmas Thursday

Yesterday was a good Thursday.

Blake got sworn into the Maryland bar.  For those of you out there that would like to watch a line of santa-looking judges (the chief judge's words --not mine) talk about their law careers and then ask a group of uncomfortable looking young attorneys to raise their arms to the square and repeat some official mumbo-jumbo, you can check it out here:  http://www.mdcourts.gov/.

Actually, it was a great morning (santa's helpers aside).  Everything went smootly.  We made it to Annapolis in plenty of time, got to hang out for a while, and then I got to watch as Blake became an attorney.  He's got an official certificate and a load of less-than-halfway-decent photos (taken by me) to prove it.  Well done, my Blake.

After a quick lunch at Panera Bread, we headed back to our respective offices: me to an H1N1 shot and class scheduling, and Blake to an office party, meetings, and a white elephant.

I survived my vaccination this time (I asked for the nasal spray instead of the shot) and am feeling dandy.  The cafeteria sent out a notice that all ice cream products were $.99, so I ran down and purchased Haagen Das bars for my office.  You know I can't resist a $.99 ice cream special.  You wouldn't either...believe me.

We also made the quick 10-minute trek to Tom's house, where we made graham cracker cookie house.  Actually, ours was more like a flat-roofed, utah-shaped, crack house, but Tom and Jenny's looked like a decent christmas-y place.  Paul and Katie...well...I'm not exactly sure how theirs turned out, but at various points it was a great-looking apartment building/bungalo/teepee.

I guess we can't fault Tom, though.  He is an architect, after all.

Some picture updates:

Blake taking the oath.

My Blake in front of the Maryland Court of Appeals.

Us in the Maryland Court of Appeals.

Pay Czar

I don't agree with government regulation of salaries, but I must say that he's a pretty nice guy.

iMac

They say a picture says a thousand words.

This picture only says nine (but with the same punch as a thousand):

We now own a Mac.  We are finally cool.

A Question for the Universe

One of my colleagues brought in breakfast pastries this morning.

So, when left with a piece of coffee cake that is too big for one bite, but too small for two bites, do you:

a.  Go for it, and risk looking like a foolish (but satisfied) blowfish.
OR
b.  Exercise restraint and good table manners.

I Probably Need That

Yesterday when I came home from work I hid something under Blake's side of the covers when I was making the bed (I made the bed at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, so sue me).

I couldn't resist. It was gift from the mail man. Left right there in our red post box. A mail-order magazine featuring my new favorite fashion faux pas: a Snuggie. Multiple Snuggies. In multiple colors and patterns.

When we both wanted to fall into bed exhausted, Blake pulled back the covers and....had no idea what it was...until he looked closer (he didn't have contact in at this point)...and then we both started laughing -- he when he realized what he was looking at, and me at his look of recognition.

Did you know that you can also buy Snuggies for your dogs? The come in x-small (think Chihuahua) or small (think cocker spaniel).

For pure enjoyment's sake (and because I wasn't quite ready to fall asleep) I flipped through the pages of the catalogue. Occasionally thinking to myself "hmm, that set of Christmas candles is actually pretty cool" and (much to Blake's amusement) accidentally thinking out loud about a toe separator/bunion pain reliever "I probably need that."

That's the last time I ever think aloud while reading a mail-order-catalogue in bed next to Blake.