2022 Holiday Season

The last three weeks of December were full of friends, church activities, food, and family fun. Here are some of the highlights:

Sarah Avery and Delaney loved participating in our new church's Nativity Play.  

Clara joined them as a sheep.  :)

These beauties sang with The Westminster Choir as the featured charolers in the lobby of the famous Willard Hotel next to the White House.  

Cousin William came to watch Susannah.  

The Christmas decorations were so beautiful. 

Afterward, we walked over to the White House lawn to check out the National Christmas Tree display.  

It was fun to have family with us for the evening. 

It was cold, but so sparkly and full of Christmas spirit. 

All of our decorations didn't make it to the Air B&B, but luckily our Jesse Tree did so we were able to continue one of our favorite advent traditions.  

Lighting the candles

and reading the nightly prayer is always the highlight of the season for me.  

As soon as the girls were out of school, it was time for Cinnoman Roll day.  

The girls were so helpful.  

Finished products, ready for delivery. 

Another day we headed to Pentagon City Mall to see this guy.  

We met friends for lunch afterward......it was a great day. 

Before we knew it, Christmas Eve was upon us and we were ready to head to The Aiken's with our traditional pigs in a blanket wreaths.  

After a fun afternoon and lovely church service, we headed home to get the house ready for Santa.  

Christmas morning started with the traditional torture of photos on the steps.  

We were sad to see Sam head back to the North Pole, but he left a sweet note.  

Sarah Avery was excited about her new jewelry box. 

Other big gifts were an Ipad for Susannah and UGG boots for Sarah.  

Merry Christmas!

Mama got some cool new shades from Santa. 

After a lazy day with our gifts, we made some fun desserts to take over to The Paulsen's for Supper Club. 

These friends are the family we chose.  

We took advantage of the warm weather one day after Christmas and headed out to the Wolftrap National Park for a hike.  

It may have been Sally's favorite outing of all time.  

The Wolftrap is the only National Park purely dedicated to performance arts.  Susannah gave us a little monologue from one of their outdoor stages.  

Peter's last day before heading back to Kyiv was New Year's Eve.  Susannah stayed up with us and watched Georgia eke their way into the National Championship game by the skin of their teeth.  she was pretty pumped as you can see.  


This post concludes a year that didn't turn out at all like we had planned.  Evacuating from Ukraine and watching the subsequent pain and destruction that the Ukrainian people have suffered threatened has been devastating. But the love, prayers and support of our community, friends and family has bouyed our spirits and made 2022 a year full of happy memories. Thank you to everyone who made that true. And may God bring peace in 2023.