Happy Friday everyone - the final Friday of 2018, can you believe it? It seems crazy that this time last week I was still anticipating Christmas Eve, Christmas, the wonderful things my family had planned and five days off work! I feel like last Friday seems like it was both a million years ago and just yesterday! So crazy!
For today's Five on Friday, I thought I'd share pictures from the five days off work last week/this week and all the Christmas goodness that my family and I enjoyed over the five days!
One. Ice! at National Harbor - My family and I went to National Harbor on Sunday, December 23rd (Christmas Eve Eve - if you didn't know) to check out the Charlie Brown Christmas themed ICE at the Gaylord National Harbor hotel and convention center. The temperature in the tent that houses the display is kept at a constant 9 degrees and everyone is given a bright blue calf length parka to wear for exploring the ice sculptures and zipping down the ice slides!
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| So colorful & fun! |
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| The Nativity - carved from ICE! |
If you have a chance to see ICE! - I'd definitely recommend it! While we did wait about thirty minutes in line to get our parkas, once we entered the exhibit itself it was not crowded, the sculptures are amazing and zipping down ice slides is so fun, I did it twice!
Two. Christmas Festivities 2018 - Christmas Day was wonderful - what can I say? I feel so blessed as it is and then Christmas rolls around and sometimes it is just an embarrassment of riches. On Christmas Eve we attended the 3:30 church service at my church and then headed home to host some of our dear friends who stopped in to have delicious Christmas treats and visit - it was so nice to see so many friends who have become an extended family! We kept our tradition of watching White Christmas alive and I will never not love watching that movie - it's absolute perfection!
I had some real wins with some of the presents I gifted - I gave my Dad a flag with our families' Scottish crest and motto; he's very interested in family history and with our Scottish roots, he was all over this flag. It's already hanging outside the house! My little sister was almost brought to tears over her Toad Hall doormat - I wanted to share the video but technical issues are keeping me from doing that - suffice it to say it was a memorable response!
I received so many wonderful gifts from my family - I'm really enjoying my gorgeous new Pandora ring, my weighted blanket and I am definitely looking forward to see Queen + Adam Lambert in concert in July! Merry Christmas to me!
Three. Morven Park - The Davis Mansion at Morven Park is a gigantic home in Leesburg that was once the home of Virginia governor, Westmoreland Davis. My parents and I have toured the home before but on Wednesday the 26th, the house was open for self-guided tours and decorated for the holidays. The house is absolutely beautiful and the self-guided tour was really nice, taking in everything at our own pace.
Four. Light Up Fest - After our tour of the Davis Mansion at Morven Park, we made a quick Starbucks pit stop before heading to the Light Up Fest in Ashburn - which is the largest light display on the East Coast. There were lights, illuminated lanterns, blow up displays and so much more - it was fascinating.
Some of the displays showed a jungle scene, dinosaurs, American sports, an Americana section, the Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel tower and more... The other displays were centered on Chinese culture, with dragons, a pagoda, the animals represented by the Chinese Calendar (I'm a rat guys...) and pandas! There was also a very large scale inflated version of the US Capitol. If you live in the Northern Virginia area, Light Up Fest goes through January 2nd - go check it out!
Five. The Random Picture Round Up - Finally, the miscellaneous photo round up portion of the post, ha-ha! The Gaylord National Harbor had a really amazing display of the Holidays Around the World and everything was made from candy, cookies and treats - it was fabulous! We also snapped some pictures in and around the hotel because it always looks absolutely gorgeous!
We toured a replica of Air Force One - which was interesting but I didn't take too many pictures of that. We also popped over to snap a picture or two (or four) of the National Tree and the White House on Christmas Eve Eve...ha-ha! We had a delicious dinner at Nana's Irish Pub and I was able to have some of my beloved Banoffee Pie and of course, I can't leave out our Starbuck stop on the 26th!
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So there you have it - the round up of the last few days and my Christmas celebrations. It's been a wonderful past few days and now we are at the weekend once again! The FINAL weekend of 2018! Do you have big plans for the weekend or for New Year's Eve? I don't right now - but that could always change! Y'all have fun!
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