Winter Fun in Virginia

After Christmas, Jeff had to head back to Amman, but the girls and I stayed until our break was over.  The twins were thrilled to keep their playmates.

We went back to the gardens in the daytime. It's a really pretty place. There is a large Korean population in the area, so there is a special Korean garden section, which we had a lot of fun exploring.

And, of course, ducks on the lake are always a winner.

We ate lots of good food, both made at home,

and out in restaurants.

Elena's birthday is in January, so we had an early celebration.

My present to her was a trip to a unique cat shelter, where you can hang out and play with the cats. She had a bit of a rough start, but then one of the people who works there suggested we hang out in one of the smaller rooms with a group of cats, and Elena was in heaven.

The blue was fading from her hair, so I took her for a touch up.

Viv got some red highlights in her hair, and got it dried as curly as possible. It was a really fun look.

But she does love her blow out look too, so we went back and got that done a bit later.

It was football season, so Judy sucked Vivi into her cult. 

They had a lot of fun watching the games, and I'm glad Judy finally found someone to get as excited about it as she does.

On the Turkish Airlines flight, Elena had gotten a kids back pack with a "plane kit" including headphones, a sleeping mask, and socks. Nora found it, and decided to try out everything all at once.

This led to much bewailing from Dylan, so we rustled up another pair of headphones, and Judy realized it might be time to invest in kids' headphones.

In the days leading up to New Years, Elena went around measuring everyone's heads with paper in order to make bespoke, celebratory crowns for every member of the family.

Vivi used her selfie skills to make sure we got a picture with everyone in it.

We forgot about the Christmas crackers at Christmas, so they became New Year's crackers instead. We had a lot of fun and went to bed at a reasonable hour.  We couldn't stay up too late, because the twins got up early every day and kept us on our toes. They really liked to try on Vivi's hats.

And Dylan loved the new shirts they got so much, he insisted on trying to wear one as a matching pair of pants.

Mom and Elena spent some time hiding out in the basement and managed to complete this lovely winter wonderland puzzle.

I got Elena out of the house too and went to a nearby farm to visit goats, try out an interactive "cow milker", and admire the pigs who fought over the heat lamp.

But the best part of the vacation was time with family. We really love these guys.

Nature's final gift to us, right before we left, was a dusting of snow, just enough to be pretty without delaying our flight at all.

We left on time, and stopped off again in Istanbul at our little cafe. I wasn't sure if I was fancy enough to be seen with these lovely ladies, but luckily they love me and let me tag along, even though my hair isn't dyed fancy colors.