December 2012: It's Nutcracker season at Walnut Hill. This year, Aurora asked to see the show
twice - once with her best friend from school and once with Greer and Ariana. She also attended
two holiday parties at Walnut Hill. Of course, there was the excitement of getting ready for
Christmas at home too. Between Christmas and New Years, we joined the rest of the Liu family in
the Washington DC area.
December 4, 2012: Aurora sees Santa at Magic Beans in Cambridge. She was pretty excited and had a hard
time deciding what to say when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas.
December 8, 2012: Nutcracker with Greer and Ariana. Aurora loved the show, as usual. During
intermission, she showed the other girls where to go to get a snack.
December 15, 2012: The last day of ballet for the fall semester.
Video: Ballet 1!
Video: Ballet 2
Video: ...and up!
Video: Skipping
Video: Reverence
Later that day, we attended the Walnut Hill kids' party. Not only were there lots of crafts, but Santa stopped
by to give each child a small gift!
Aurora decorated her own cookie.
She made votive holders too.
December 16, 2012: Aurora goes to The Nutcracker again. This time, we attended with Saavedra's family. An addded
treat was seeing Lindsey and Payton there as well.
Back at home, we decided to go through Aurora toy boxes to help reduce the amount of stuff we have in the
living room. As you can see, she owns enough stuffed animals to fill multiple toy boxes.
This was all to make room for a Christmas tree.
December 17, 2012: Aurora joins Mama for the annual Holiday Boar's Head Dinner. Afterwards,
several of the adults kept giving her
more and more candy to take home. Aurora did not mind one bit.
December 21, 2012: Ariana and her parents came over for dinner. Afterwards, the girls put on a dance show for us.
Video: Welcome to Aurora and Ariana's show
Video: The show
December 22, 2012: Aurora is invited to Jacob's party at Boston Sports Club.
Uncle Anthony came over that evening and we roasted some marshmallows in the fireplace.
December 23, 2012: We spent the morning in IKEA. Aurora loves having breakfast there (while
watching a show on the TV) then playing in Smaland while Mama and Baba shop.
December 24, 2012: It's Christmas Eve! Greer and her parents joined us that evening. Once again, Aurora
convinces her friend to help her put on a ballet show. Jon is the "ballet helper."
Video: Opening act
Video: Pas de trois
After they left, it's time for DVD and bed. After Aurora finally fell asleep, Jon and Kathy
finish wrapping presents and filling the stockings. We were up way past midnight getting things
ready for the morning.
December 25, 2012: Merry Christmas! Before opening presents, Aurora must endure the endless
family photos!
We finally get to the presents! Mama got to open the first one - it's a new camera!
Now it's Aurora's turn. and again. and again.
Aurora got not one, but two kinds of Dino Poop! Which she promptly needed to open up and examine.
Video: Hungry hungry herbivore
Back to opening presents. Jon finally got to open a few of his gifts. Aurora carefully examined each
tag to see who it was for. The tricky part was that some of the tags were in Chinese, so she had to compare
the gift tag to a sample of her name.
Video: Reading the gift tag
Time for the stockings!
December 26, 2012: Corin and Oliver are in town, so we joined them for breakfast.
December 27, 2012: We headed down to DC the day before. The first big family event was to
see the Shrek ice exhibit. Everyone had to put on special parkas to keep from freezing!
Video: Aurora gets stuck
Video: Jon on the ice slide
Video: Aurora gets stuck again
Video: Kathy's turn
December 28, 2012: We took the Metro from our hotel in Alexandria to The National Mall. First stop,
Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We got tickets for the Butterfly Garden, then checked out
the dinosaur bones.
Outside, we saw the Washington Monument. Aurora was more excited to see a carousel.
After the carousel, we went to check out the Ai Weiwei exhibit at the HIrshorn Museum. Aurora was
impressed by the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Everyone got their photo taken in front of their animal.
Aurora is a rat, Jon is a tiger, Elena is a dragon, and Wai Po, Wai Gong, and Kathy are all dogs.
Inside, everyone was quite impressed by Ai Weiwei's works.
We met up with the rest of the group at the Air and Space Museum. Here is Aurora touching
a piece of the moon.
More important, it was time for a snack. Almost everyone chose ice cream!
Another Metro ride took us to dinner. And finally back to the hotel.
December 29, 2012: While most of the family headed in to tour the Capital Building, Kathy went to see
the train exhibit at the Botanical Gardens.
December 30, 2012: Our last morning with everyone together.
After saying good-bye to Isaac and Elena and their family, Jon, Kathy and Aurora checked out of the
Embassy Suites and into Leisure World. That afternoon, we met up with Heather and Dave to walk through
the National Zoo. Unfortunately, it was too cold for many of the animals to be out, but we found other
things to enjoy there.
Video: Jon goes tubing
Video: Kathy goes tubing
Aurora enjoyed her bug carousel ride and the train ride to check out some of the Zoo Lights.
Got to make sure we are headed back the right way!
