We’ve been burning the candle at both ends lately in the lead up to Christmas.

We finally got our tree decorated last Friday:…and put out a few more decorations, just in time for an evening get together with some dear old friends.

The next day my daughter had friends of her own over to decorate cookies. The final products were charming:

…in a rather surreal sort of way!The boys had fun decorating cookies of their own with a “Ninjabread Cookie Kit”:

On Sunday we headed up to Arlington. That evening my friend Victoria and I went to a Mount Vernon by Candlelight tour:

We sang Christmas carols all the way back to her house, where we ended the evening by lighting her Advent wreath:

On Monday, the kids and I went over to my friend Janel’s house, where we decorated more cookies, sang more Christmas carols, and even caught a glimpse of Santa as he cruised through Rockville, MD on a fire truck!

I got to have lunch with this sweet friend today:

Afternoon tea at the St. Regis with my friendy Wendy:

And dinner with my family at an old favorite, Jang Won Korean Chinese Restaurant in Annandale:

Tomorrow we hit the road to head to Princeton, where we’ll be spending Christmas with the rest of my family.