The White House

Tom and I visited the White House today and did a self-guided tour of the East Wing of the Residence. We were able to go because Tom was nominated by his boss for the slot - it was nice, I thought it would be a smaller group, but there were a lot of people. Christmas is the only time you are allowed to bring a camera in. I got some good pictures, although not as many as I would have liked because the lighting was sort of difficult. I also thought that I would not be allowed to have my camera bag, so I took the small camera instead of my nice camera. I did get some good shots though, and here are some to share...

This first tree was dedicated to the men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. There were table with postcards that visitors could fill our to be mailed overseas from the White House.

There were many beautiful decorations, but I think my favorite things were these amazing wreaths along the entrance hallway. They are really beautiful, made of fruits, vegetables, and flowers.
This one is made of artichokes....
I may go rummage through the White House trash after Christmas to see if I can take one home...

Christmas Is Coming..

We are getting into the holiday spirit here! We put up the tree this weekend, got some shopping done, decorated the house, and Baby-O got an early, Smurfy Christmas present in the mail (he had permission to open it early).


After posing nice for a few shots, he decided to show that Smurf who's the boss...


I did not get to baking this weekend, but hopefully tomorrow night I will get a little bit done. It won't feel like Christmas if I don't do any baking.

Tomorrow we are going on our White House tour! I am very excited to see the White House decorated for Christmas, especially since I missed my opportunity to go to the National Tree Lighting ceremony. My friend had extra tickets, but it was too cold for the little guy, so we stayed home.

The Waiting Game

My trip to New London went well this week, and Tom's went well last week. We both feel really good about our interviews and teaching demos. So now we wait for the decisions to come down. The estimated timeline is that we should know by the middle of February. It takes a little while because the decision has to be approved by Congress.

One More Thing...

I forgot to mention yesterday that Baby-O sprouted his two top teeth on Thursday. Teeth total: 4 (and more on the way)!

On the Move

Baby-O is not quite crawling yet, but he does manage to get around. He rolls and scoots his way towards toys, the cat, me and Dad. Here is a sequence of his skills:






We are having a pretty quiet weekend here. Tom has his interview in CT on Thursday so he is busy preparing for the teaching demo and interview. My visit is next Tuesday, so I have a bit more time, but still need to get to work on my preparations. We have decided that I will travel to New London alone... that will be my first separation from Baby-O, but it seems to make more sense than hauling him up there, especially since we will be traveling for the holidays soon.

I need to get cracking on Christmas shopping too! No home-made pasta this year, too many other competing priorities.