Christmas Time!

It's hard to believe we are only a week away from Christmas! So much hustle and bustle around here, it's sometimes hard to remember to stop and smell the roses...or the trees...

Every Christmas, the White House hosts a tree-lighting. and a huge celebration. We missed the lighting ceremony and concert, but were able to enjoy it after the fact:

They also put up a smaller tree for every state. We walked around until we found Kansas, and MUCH to our surprise and delight...the ornaments were in honor of the 150th anniversary of our alma mater, Washburn University!

A few months ago, Tim was informed he had won an award at work called the "Rookie of the Year." We attended a ceremony last week where he was honored. I'm so proud of him! Tim always wanted to be ROTY, but never thought it would be non-sports-related. :) Associate Attorney General Tony West was the keynote speaker, and there were several other awards given out to well-deserving DOJ employees, so it was fun to hear of everyone's accomplishments. 

Tony West speaking

Lined up and ready to go!

I was videotaping the actual presentation, so this was the only photo I got of Tim and his award!

Last weekend, Tim and I participated in a "Jingle All the Way 8K" in DC. We had a team called "Santa's Grab Bag," which consisted of several of my co-workers. We had an absolute BLAST! Everyone running was given jingle bells for their shoes, so it really fun. Lots of people dressed up, I saw a nativity scene, complete with baby Jesus in the stroller, a team of 'reindeer', and a gingerbread man in a head-to-toe onesie costume.

Our Team!

We had our Community Group Christmas party this past week, and everyone was to wear an ugly sweater. Believe it or not, Goodwill had NO Christmas sweaters, so I settled on an ugly sweater for me, and a hideous tie for Tim. I then went to Ross and found what I still consider to be a crazy-awesome find. It was ugly sweater and tie COFFEE! Very random...so we wore tinsel necklaces of our coffees. Needless to say, we won the award for "best attempt." :)

We all had a white elephant gift exchange, and Tim happened to end up with this. It was originally a wedding gift from "Aunt Ellen" (an aunt of some of our newly-married friends) and it is supposedly hand-carved in Germany. It didn't "fit" in their house, they said.... ;-) Anyone know what it is called?! I believe you put wine in the top and the lantern is for decoration?! We had some good laughs about this one, :)

Happy countdown to Christmas!