Christmas at Dumbarton + Zoo Lights

In early December, families were invited to join the fellows for the Dumbarton Christmas party. This was a bit of a mixed bag for me; Dumbarton has EXCELLENT food and throws a good party... But it was also a fancy party. And I have three littles who are all extroverts and cannot contain their excitement when around groups of people.

Sigh.

Additionally, the timing of it meant that Brad wouldn't really have time to come home and help me get everyone ready and to the party. Which is not uncommon in Durham but definitely posed more complications in DC. But you only live (in DC) once (probably), so I got it done. We put on sparkles and furry vests, started our trek WAY before we needed to be there (and still got in at the same time as everyone else), navigating the going-home traffic and the millions of stop signs in Georgetown... and made it unscathed.

I even snagged a few shots of the girls beforehand.

Success of the photos is debatable.

The party was held in the Dumbarton museum music room, which is just beautiful. You better believe I watched the girls like a hawk to make sure they didn't set drinks down on the grand piano (they didn't... But other people did. I wash my hands of those guys.). 

Waiting patiently for food 

The Crawfords joined us at our chairs in the corner after a while, which thrilled the girls to no end and helped keep them occupied and out of mischief. I love the Crawfords and miss them greatly... They have magical ways with my children. We stayed for about an hour before managing Brynnie in a confined space became pretty difficult. We made sure we'd gotten to try a bit of all of the food offered before packing up and calling it a night.

Before walking out, though, the Dumbarton photographer stopped us for a picture. Brynn was over it, and Claire and Lily were upset that we were making them leave the fun. This is what he got:

He emailed it to Brad a few days later with the caption "lovely family!" HA! I still laugh about it.

Very shortly after that (maybe the next night?), we bundled up and took the girls back to see the Zoo Lights again. I didn't get a ton of pictures, but I did snag a few fun ones:

It's really hard to get good pictures of the lights, but you should trust me that they are beautiful in person. There are a lot of light exhibits like this:

But the really interesting and impressive ones are the ones like this:

We walked the whole length of the zoo looking at all of the light exhibits (the real animal exhibits are closed at night), and I thoroughly enjoyed looking at it all. The children largely enjoyed it...but they were cold/tired of walking/hungry/etc. It got a little better when I went to pick up our member swag bags that included light-up necklaces. I probably should have done that at the very beginning of the walk. I'll remember next time! Anyway. If you find yourself in DC during December, I highly recommend a walk through the zoo at night! You can buy hot beverages there, but they are rather pricey, so really, I'd recommend taking a hot chocolate with you and then walking through the zoo. If you ever go, let me know what you think!