Christmas Pictures Part 2

Karate Kid was thrilled with her Christmas gift, a full set of sparring gear.  Watch out Stat Boy, she's ready to take you out!

Every year we have two of our favorite families over for what the kids affectionately call the Machenias Party.  Machenias is a combination of our families' names.  Baby Wingnut did a terrific job sharing his trains with Benja.  I had to snap this cute photo of the two of them carrying on an in-depth conversations through their trains.

At one point the two-year-olds decided to have a screaming match.  The two of them were inches from each other seeing who could scream the loudest.  Of course, once the camera came out, one of them decided he'd had enough.  Benja's dad gave it a try with Baby Wingnut.  Benja seems to be thoroughly enjoying the match.

On New Years Eve, we took a quick trip to the National Shrine for confession.  The best way to start out a New Year is with a clean soul.  The Shrine was decked out for Christmas so I had to take a couple shots leading to the altar.

After the Shrine we headed over to Mount Vernon.  It was very cold and blustery but well worth the trip.  Mount Vernon has many special exhibits and traditions every Christmas that we tried to take advantage of.  I forgot to get pictures outside of the mansion, probably due to the cold, but I did get a shot of the gorgeous gingerbread replica of Mount Vernon, created by White House Executive Pastry Chef Roland Mesnier.