Pre-holidays fun at National Harbor.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... by which I mean our tree has been up for weeks, insanely complicated holiday travel plans have been made, and I've watched "White Christmas." It doesn’t hurt that it's finally started to get cold here (not that any of the Niemans have complained about the unseasonably warm November.) This also means that the planes, trains and automobiles fiasco kicks off next weekend, so we were determined to enjoy this last one at home. Or at least get a whole bunch of things ticked off our pre-holiday to-do list.

Unfortunately for my plans to clean out the attic, it's "that time of the year" for grad students again, so Seth had to study rather than sort through TA-50. Or so he claimed. This meant the little early bird and I had lots of time on our hands, so we spent our weekend mornings finishing our Christmas shopping at her current favorite place, Barnes & Noble. (She also tore Dad away from his statistics homework long enough to go to the park Saturday, where he let her do this.)

By Sunday afternoon I had done load upon load of laundry, navigated Target with a cranky Finley, fought with a broken vacuum cleaner for hours, and was beginning to develop a Cinderella complex. So Seth took pity on me and caved to my demand for a family afternoon at National Harbor. I had been dying to go see the earliest-lit Christmas tree in the NCR, and take Finley to the winter wonderland at the Gaylord complex.

National Harbor didn't disappoint. It never does, honestly- an anomaly of a place around here with plenty of parking, no crowds, and restaurants that seat you with no reservations. Finley rode the carousel

and had the playground all to herself (probably due to suddenly winter-like winds Sunday).

The ever-indulgent Seth also took us on the Capital Wheel at sunset, something that had been on my DC bucket list for awhile. It was every bit as spectacular as promised, with views like this one. (Photos don't do it justice, as with most terrific views.)

Finley's favorite part seemed to be the emergency button inside the gondola, and Seth's was the big screens showing the Vikings-Packers game all over the harbor complex.

He did get to watch a good chunk of the game at the sports bar next to the winter wonderland. After the obligatory blurry family photo. All in all, a nice pre-holiday weekend was had by all. Except for the Vikings loss, of course.

Speaking of obligatory family photos, we did get a very understanding stranger to try to take a decent one for our Christmas card. No dice, but these hilarious outtakes made us laugh.

And the other photo of the week is this one, of Finley in her new courtesy-of-Grandma Hello Kitty PJs, sweet talking Dad into another bedtime story.

Waffles & Wednesdays

Sunday mornings have finally become a thing in the Nieman household.

When we're home, anyway, and we've had a nice long stretch of travel-free weekends lately.

 I don't even remember what we did before Finley, except for vague recollections of long runs followed by pitchers of mimosas. (The nostalgia pangs are real.) When Finley was tiny, at-home weekend mornings revolved around early morning feedings followed by a desperate attempt to grab a few more hours of sleep (and repeat). And then she was bigger and still up insanely early, but it was summer so I packed her up in the jogging stroller or dragged her to the farmer's market just after dawn. Now that she reliably sleeps 11 hours or so and then likes to putter around the house all morning, we have PJ-and-cartoon mornings and eat waffles. We're starting to really enjoy our lazy Sunday mornings.

I just got a Belgian waffle maker that flips like the ones in hotels, and I love it.

I am also kind of in love with that rare and surprisingly wonderful thing, a Wednesday federal holiday. Thanks to Army leave regulations, there is no way to turn a Wednesday into a long weekend- so I simply had Veterans' Day off in the middle of the week. At work, we complained that it cost us a long weekend, but in reality it was like a gift: we didn't feel obligated to plan anything, like you do when you have a stretch of downtime, but we still got to play hooky. At least I did, and Finley's daycare was closed. Seth still had class, but he took the morning off and we went for a beautiful family bike ride on the Capital Crescent Trail, where we managed to avoid the famously aggressive owl and found a new playground for Finley. Of course she preferred the leaf piles.

The weekend felt like a bonus after a seemingly two day work week, and we spent as much of it as we could outside enjoying our Indian summer. Seth spent some Seth Time in a tree stand. I had a mini-meltdown about how back-to-back pregnancies means I haven't gotten to have Amy Time (read: long runs or rock climbs or more than one beer) in literally years (brought on by the unfortunately-timed comment that this was "only" his second time deer hunting this season.) Bless his heart. Seth tried to understand, and made me feel slightly better by making me a fresh-squeezed mimosa and acquiescing to a family hike. (During which he fished, Finley ate dirt, and very little actual hiking occurred.)

Still, outside time is outside time, and I'm trying hard not to look gift horses in the mouth these days.

I also snuck out Sunday night for a much-needed girls' dinner and a yoga benefit (for the Yellow Ribbon Fund) by candlelight. I ate spicy food, did downward dog without little hands grabbing my ponytail, and centered my chi. I also found myself thinking that Finley would love the Christmas lights on Bethesda Ave.

Seth and Finley watched the Vikings game and celebrated the big win (and current status as NFC North champs) over the pork chops and cabbage I had left in the crockpot. Finley apparently loves sauerkraut. The house smelled like Warsaw in winter when I got home, but the world's easiest dinner prep was a hit- and went well with a Vikings victory, I'm told. (I've been dicing vegetables and mincing fresh herbs and grinding my own spices all these years, why again?)

Finley's also been busy with Christmas prep, which she loves. By which I mean, perusing the ads

and shopping "for her cousins." (Thank you, Lisa and Sara, for failing to warm me about the uber-creepy beanie boos.)

The photo of the week is from Thursday night bed check. I found Finley sleeping in this incredibly relaxing position.

Oh, and this rare family shot, from our hiking/ fishing/ dirt-eating excursion.

Birthday Week & Christmas Lights

There was frost on the ground this morning, and I was halfway to work before it finally warmed up inside the hybrid. I was actually grateful. It made me feel a little less ridiculous for doing this: on a weekend we also did yardwork in shorts.

According to Walters Family Tradition, I was late with the tree. We always used to put ours up the day after Halloween. Now, Mom & Dad's- and I think maybe Sara's- have become year-round fixtures. What can I say? Christmas lights are cheerful. Ours had me feeling a little nostalgic too, since it was Finley's birthday week and I couldn't help but remember all the Christmas tree-lit night feedings (only!) a year ago.

Finley reveled in the rest of her birthday week. She played with her new toys every night, partially overcame her fear of the walker, and tried to read all of her books at the same time. Thursday I had to speak at an insanely boring conference on force structure (my briefing threatened to put me to sleep!) but at least I managed to sneak out early enough to pick her up and take her to the park before it got dark. 

She managed to convince us she needed another cupcake too, and I thought I had her outsmarted by going with minis this time- until Seth (obviously on Finley's team) put one of each flavor in front of her "so she can pick which one she wants," and she grabbed them both and stuffed them in her mouth before either of us could react. Winning.

We also got a very cool "double birthday" call from the Misawa Walters- since Ben & Lisa are 14 hours ahead of us, it was Tyler's birthday too! 

Friday night we fought traffic to make it down for a final birthday celebration, and one I had been super excited about. Because I'm an honorary Carron ("0% Korean!" as Grace always gloats, reminding me that she's "a quarter Korean"), Finley got to don Grace's old hanbok for the fortune telling ritual. It was hilarious and awesome. She picked the pencil, which supposedly means she will be smart- although the way she was jabbing it about, she was more likely selecting a weapon.

We had a quiet weekend at home after the festivities. I was battling a cold along with the "poor me"s, since being sick while pregnant (read: unable to take any decent cold meds) just seems like adding insult to injury. We took Finley on a hilarious Christmas decoration shopping trip to Target, and an ill-fated late afternoon trip to the zoo (most of the animals had retired for the night, so we bailed and went out for BBQ. Although she did really dig the elephants.) And we had a nice long fall walk and watched Army lose to Air Force purely out of loyalty while longsuffering Dad deer hunted (having buttered up sick and cranky Mom by helping out with tons of chores and some seriously thorough yardwork first.)

The photo of the week was probably Finley's favorite part of the weekend. I call it "that look on your face when you're the first kid at the park on Saturday morning." 

A Banner Weekend for the Niemans

It's a rare occasion that I'm at a loss for words, but there aren't many that would do this last week justice. It was a week of banner events for the Nieman family, and we were lucky enough to get to share them in person with lots of people who mean the world to us (as well as bask in the well wishes of the many more who were there in spirit.) We spent an absolutely insane couple of days ordering cupcakes and preparing scripts and getting the house semi-company ready and making sure there were batteries in the camera and frontloading homework assignments and rearranging work obligations... but things worked out and the maze of logistics fell away- as these things have a way of doing- by Thursday, when an assorted crew of friends and family and former teammates and West Point classmates and old bosses and even a decorated football coach descended on the Fort Belvoir Golf Course for Seth's promotion to Major.   

It was a terrific way to celebrate. LTG Thomas did the honors, and gave a speech that was personal and inclusive, funny and touching, interesting and inspired. Plus he let Finley crawl around while he talked and generally steal the show. Seth had to give part of his speech holding her, but still managed to thank his family, make everyone feel included, shift the focus to his teammates and supporters, choke up a little bit, and avoid dropping the f-bomb. Big win. And after the ceremony everyone hung out and drank beer and avoided traffic while Finley charmed the kitchen staff into making her some chicken tenders and I attacked the cupcakes. We were thrilled that so many people- especially Seth's parents- could be there to share his hard-earned moment.

And our celebrating was just getting started! Tony and Jayne were in town for the whole fortuitously-timed weekend, so we also managed to do Halloween (Finley loved her costume once she realized that people thought it was cute, and spent two parades and a 5k literally preening in it), squeeze in a date lunch sans baby (I only felt a little guilty for having chicken and waffles without her), and stage an early one-year birthday party, cake smash and all. It was such a big weekend for the little beast, I'm a little worried about how she's handling a post-daylight-savings-time Monday with no cupcakes, no presents, and no grandparents in sight. I always hate leaving for work in the dark, with Seth and Finley still snoozing peacefully- but in light of the above, I feel a little like I dodged a bullet today.

 I AM encouraged by the fact that, even after a morning spent opening presents and playing with new toys, her favorite game Sunday afternoon was still stealing forks out of the dishwasher. And that her own personal slide in the living room was still trumped in the "utter glee" department by the rusty swings at the park.

There are too many terrific photos from the weekend to pick just a few, although I loved this father-son moment from Halloween night, which Seth spent hanging streamers for Finley's birthday party and ignoring Tony's baby slide-building advice.

The rest of the photos from the weekend are an unedited, unsorted mess here. Although there are some gems.