Birthday Celebration--43rd!

It's here....the week of Christmas!  And guess what I did just 3 days before Christmas Eve?!  Dumped paint all over in the coat closet.  Ugh. I thought the lid was securely closed.  I was moving the can of paint to the top shelf and tilted it to make it fit.  Next thing I know I feel paint running down my arm.  It took me 4 or more hours to clean it all up.  The only casualty was my rain jacket.  I couldn't get the paint out of that.  What a mess! Thankfully I didn't care about my shoes.  I am still sad about my rain jacket though.                                                           

We got a clean closet out of it.  Argh.

On December 23rd, Lee took the day off of work so I could celebrate my birthday with just us. The weather was pretty crummy on the way in to DC.  In DC it was just raining.  On one of the highways we saw a Tesla go out of control right in front of us...on wet roads, not icy roads.  I was amazed that it didn't crash in to us, the person in front of them, or into any cars when it slid across the flappy barrier sticks into the EZ Pass lane.  It was crazy!

Our first stop was the National Holocaust Museum. It was such a great place to go!  I had heard about it, but had never been.  It was great to take the kids too. 

This lady was a Holocaust survivor.  She was able to stay hidden from the Germans in France, but suffered much through WWII. Her mom helped some kids who were being deported and she ended up dying with them.  The lady I am pictured with went back to their house after the war, she was only 16, and waited for her mom to come home.  The mom never did. 

We did baptisms at the Temple, went out to eat, stopped at World Market, and got Crumbl Cookies!  Not in that order, but all the same day. Later that night we went back to the Visitors' Center and watched a fun big band perform. 

A cute diner for dinner!

Loved seeing the many nativities at the Visitors' Center. 

Another highlight that night was using the Giving Machine by the temple!  I've always wanted to use one, and it was so fun!  You get to purchase the "items" you want to give. 

It was a fun birthday celebration.  It's been nice celebrating my birthday on a different day than my actual birthday. We are always with extended family, which is fun, but becomes more of a hosting day and cooking for everyone day than actually a nice birthday time with just my little family! I think I'll keep doing this!