Wow! I can’t believe it’s 2008 already. Each year sure does go by so quickly. And, apparently the holidays do too, since it’s been 2 weeks since the last post.

I guess I’ll start with our Christmas vacation to Maryland, and see how long that goes before committing to New Year’s in this post…

Virgin America is great. We had no problems at the airport, and loved the deep purple “mood lighting” as we boarded the plane. The power ports at each seat allowed Mark to work on his lap top most of the time, and I read a magazine and played a couple of games. The flight went pretty quickly and we weren’t too uncomfortable either. Mark’s mom picked us up and it was great to see her. It’s been almost a year!

Friday night was very fun and culturally stimulating. We went to dinner with Mark’s sister Sara and her boyfriend Andrew who knows all of the great spots in DC. Our Pre-Theater dinner at 1789. http://www.1789restaurant.com/main/index.shtml. It was all delicious and I was a bit annoyed with my diminished stomach capacity. After dinner we saw the National Symphony Orchestra perform Handel’s ‘Messiah’ at the Kennedy Center. It was the first time I’d been to a performance there, and our seats were close to the stage. It was nice to attend a holiday-themed event to get more into the spirit of Christmas too.

Saturday was “friend” day. We had lunch with my friends Teresa and Amanda at an Italian place. Our waiter was hilarious–but not on purpose. He just seemed like a nervous little guy and then when pouring Mark’s water, he didn’t notice he was pouring as much on the table as in the glass…so we cleaned up the puddle of water, and the waiter looked at me funny when I asked for another napkin. It was great to see them. It’s been a very long time. We got to catch up on each others lives and have a good time.

Then, later that day one of my best friends, Charlene, came with her adorable family to visit too! It was the first time I got to meet her baby–who is 7 months old now. And, her other 2 boys are so grown up and cute too! We had a nice visit, but of course it was too short. I was really happy we got to see her though.

Sunday was nice and relaxing. We had a nice breakfast and the program at church was nice. It was funny/interesting in Relief Society because there are a lot of pregnant women in the ward–which is apparently rare for them.

Monday we finished shopping and had our Christmas Eve dinner. Everything was really good. Then, on to another fun tradition in Mark’s family–decorating gingerbread houses. We’d been preparing them for a couple of days, and now we got to assemble and decorate. There was the girls team (Sara, Mom and Me), and the boys team (Mark and Andrew). Right away we could tell there would be a big difference in the houses. They started by putting a gummy shark on the roof and giant Coke bottle candies near the door. We girls had a more systematic and “aesthetically pleasing” approach.

There was definitely a lot of candy eaten and applied to both houses! We had a lot of fun too. You can look at our smugmug.com pictures to see further details of each house.  Highlights include: Gummy Bear Car Crash, Peeping Tom Gummy and War-like explosions.

We opened presents Christmas Eve so Sara and Andrew would both be there. It was fun seeing the massive pile diminish.

We were very blessed this year and everyone was very generous. Mark was overwhelmed with Wii games–we almost tripled our collection. And, I was pampered by my adorable husband with ultra soft slippers, a robe and a foot massager. (I’m also thrilled with my air popper and new hand mixer that are on their way) Mark’s mom was so wonderful and gave me a pregnancy massage at the Red Door Spa. There are more pictures on Smug Mug…but here’s one of the favorites–Andrew as a present.

Christmas was a wonderful day. We had breakfast as a family and Mark enjoyed his new games. We saw “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” and visited the Washington D.C. temple to look at the lights. They’re not as numerous at Salt Lake’s Temple Square, but just as beautiful. We enjoyed looking at the Christmas trees decorated by surrounding stakes and enjoying the spirit that is easily felt there.

On Wednesday I had my massage, and it was so relaxing. That night, we all went to a Capitals hockey game. It was fun riding the metro again and going into the city. It was a close game–the Caps trailed by 1 goal most of the game, but they came up with one more at the end to win it. That was a lot of fun. Some people are serious fans, so they’re entertaining to watch too.

Thursday was busy since we saw more family–mine this time–and I got to meet a new cousin, Lizzie. She’s really cute. And, my other little cousins are getting so big too! We had fun with them.

We had lunch with my friend Mike–always good times–before rushing off to the airport for our flight home.

Britt was not forgotten this Christmas and he got lots of great gifts too! Thank everyone! I definitely got bigger this week, and so things were suddenly harder–like bending over and walking up stairs.

New Years will be in another post…I’m pretty sure this one is long enough!