Lights of the Season

As Christmas activities continue to dominate our month, we have tried to include as many traditions as we can while we are here in the United States. This includes seeing the lights that are displayed throughout the area. 

One of our favorite stops was the Washington, DC temple. This building is always an icon for the DC area as it is seen from the freeway on the Maryland side, just north of DC. When you drive up to the Temple campus, there are such beautifully manicured gardens to enjoy. All year around there are flowers and greenery to look at. But during Christmas it is even more popular with all of the Christmas lights. The trip did not disappoint. 

It was cold and rainy, but we all still enjoyed it anyway! 

 Inside the Visitor's Center at the Temple, they have trees decorated from all of the Stakes (regions of congregations) around the DC area. They also have a few trees with decorations donated from the countries around the world. Many of them donated from their embassies in DC. 

There was also a collection of creche exhibits with creche displayed from all over the world. I loved this because we too, have a collection of creche from all over the world. I have collected them where ever we go. But seeing all of these creche made me realize we have so many fun places to go! 

We journeyed into DC to see the National Christmas Tree that is on the Ellipse outside the White House. There are fifty trees around the large tree that have decorations from all 50 states and the territories of the United States. We braved the wind and crowds long enough to find all of the states that we were born in. (We were lucky that Washington, DC and Hawaii were right next to each other). 

This last group of photos are from a craft project. A friend was in charge of the congregation Christmas event. She sent me a photo of some large letters. She said that to rent them were about 800usd, so she asked if could make them! Yes! Of course! 

Then the creative juices start going. I did a trip to Home Depot to explore ideas. She and I settled on this insulation style Styrofoam. Then we braved the cold weather to make the letters. I was thankful for geometry and a creative mind. We were able to get all the letters cut out. She then put on the edge framing and I did the lights (again, geometry and art came in handy). 

While not perfect, the end product turned out really well! We were both happy that it did.