Christmas in Pennsylvania

Ahhh, Home sweet Home! Did you know it's so cold in PA in the winter, that everyone dresses like this on a day to day basis? Jake and I stepped right on the bandwagon. Thank goodness for those Russians...they came up with some great ideas to keep warm.
Juuust kidding, actually those are my brother, Nathan's, hats that he brought home from his mission. We all wore one when we went carolling on Christmas night. haha.

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas! We flew good ol Southwest on Christmas Eve morning to Las Vegas, and on to Baltimore, MD which is my family's frequented airport. I was a little nervous to fly almost 7 months pregnant, but it was just fine, and I didn't even have to take Dramamine like I usually do! (I probably don't have to usually, but I do cuz it puts my mind at ease) So anyways, we got in at 5 pm, and got to the Toone home just in time for a yummy ham dinner, reading the Luke 2 story and singing through the Christmas program that my mom put together for their ward. It was so great to all be together for the first time in 5 years, since my sister just got home from her mission which overlapped my brother's mission with overlapped mine! So all my parents wanted was for their 4 kids to be home for Christmas this year, with Jake and my sister's husband, David and their 2 lil boys. It was a full house, but a lot of fun!

I'll do another post of some family pictures that we took over the week, but here are a bunch of pictures of our adventures in the week following Christmas. Of course, I can never take a trip to York without going to Amish Country (the best tourist town is actually called Intercourse, believe it or not) and visiting my favorite little spot, Kitchen Kettle. It's got little shops to visit and food to taste...the best one being a jam shop with little oyster crackers to dip in all the jam and toppings you can imagine, and tortilla chips for yummy homemade salsa. Who doesn't enjoy free food?? Maybe little Bryan down there, he seems ready to go. :)

And we never go to Amish Country without taking a little detour over to Hershey, PA and visiting Chocolate World! Such a fun little place where you can go on a little ride that shows how they make the chocolate and then you get a free chocolate at the end. The town of Hershey actually smells like chocolate and has giant street lamps that look like hershey kisses. Good times.
My family also took a trip down to Baltimore, MD on Monday to visit Inner Harbor. Jake and I didn't go to the aquarium with the rest of the fam (since we had our fill in San Fransisco) but we walked around and visited ESPN zone and the huge Barnes & Noble. It's fun to say we've been to the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean now!

Jake was a gem, and volunteered to paint my parent's living room and kitchen with David and Nathan while they were all there. Good thing my dad has plenty of coveralls (leisure suits, as I call them) hanging in the garage! Good job, guys.
And we also made it down to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the last day we had to all be together. It's about a 2.5 hour drive, which isn't too bad, and we spent a couple hours walking through some Smithsonian museums. This was at the Air and Space, and then we went to Natural History where they have the dino bones and Hope Diamond.
Walkin down the "mall", it's always fun to see the Washington Monument and Capitol Building.


We also went out to dinner, and then did a session at the D.C. Temple (everyone except for David who had to take the little boys home). It was awesome to all be together for the first time in the temple, and definitely added something special to the trip.

We got to spend New Years Eve there on our last night, which we spent at home with some family friends who came over with lots of good food and played games. Here's me, Nathan and Bree ringin in the New Year with some sparkling cider and party blowers, of course. It's tradition to run outside with pots and pans at midnight and make sure all the neighbors are awake for the celebration. :)

Happy 2009 to everyone! Hope you all enjoyed the wonderful Holidays, and here's to an exciting new year!