Christmas Eve 2006

Gotta love those FandO kids!

Christmas Morning 2006

Looks like those FandO kids were very good (again) this year!

"I am poised and ready to open presents!" 

Alexander has his own precise way of opening gifts! 

Zoe and some of her favorite beauty products -- American Girl! 

Grandma taking out (yet) another bag of crumpled wrapping paper! 

Brianna and her new Big Pony Polo -- I don't think that pony is quite big enough... 

Erin and her new makeup kit! Grandma asked if she was going to become a makeup artist -- she does have a way with the stuff! 

Two of Dirk's favorite gifts! The shirt is so appropriate, and the elf hat, I mean tea cozy, will come to good use this winter! 

Just in case we didn't already know that Britt is a Princess -- she can now smell like a Princess -- a Vera Wang Princess! 

One of Ian's favorite gifts from Santa -- "The Perfect Pushup." 

12/25/06 All of those presents to open just proved way too exhausting for the baby! Here is Barkley taking a snooze and sporting his new collar! 

Well, we started at 8:00 in the morning, took a break for some breakfast and finished at 1:00 in the afternoon! We all agree that this was the best Christmas ever except for missing Grandpa Sawin, Grandma French and those Hong Kong Sawins! We love you all! Thank you much & much to the Grandparents for the thoughtful & generous gifts! 

Oregon Tree on the Ellipse

12/23/06 The National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse has little trees surrounding it that each represent the states and territories. This is the tree representing Oregon. 

Iwo Jima Memorial in Dark Chocolate

12/23/06 At the JW Marriott Hotel in DC, they have the Iwo Jima Memorial, the US Capitol, the White House, and a couple of other local landmarks all made out of chocolate. It was most impressive. Good thing they were behind glass -- Brianna wanted to get her teeth on it!

Thank You to the Porters!

12/20/06 Liz & Adam stopped by to give us a HUGE basket of foods for Christmas and to celebrate Adam's 35th Birthday! The Beef Stick is just one of the many many foods we are enjoying from the basket!

Volunteering at the USO

12/2/06 Every year we do a service project with the George/Cooke and Kasik Families instead of exchanging Christmas presents. This year we all volunteered to stuff care packages and camo kits for the USO at Ft. Belvoir. There were over a hundred volunteers, and by the end of the day we had stuffed 5,000 care packages and over 9,000 camo kits -- yeah!

Alexander, Laura and someone I don't know in between them stuffing camo kits.

Erin is such a happy volunteer! That's Ian behind her wearing his Marine Corps hat.

Happy 12th Birthday Zoe!

12/1/06 We celebrated Zoe's birthday with a "Spa Party." The girls had their nails, hair and makeup done by our lovely spa technicians (Erin, Brianna and Samantha). A great time was had by all, and of course, they all look beautiful! 

One of Zoe's guests (her cousin Kelsey) enjoying a relaxing face mask. 

Even Barkley got into the act with a little lipgloss! I've told him repeatedly that he doesn't have lips, but that didn't stop him from putting it on (actually, he was trying to eat it...)!