Christmas Vacation part 1

The best part about flying from St. Louis to DC is getting to see the Arch and the Washington Monument all in the same day. My flight landed in Reagan Naitonal Airport (Is that a new statue of Reagan outside? Yes!) so we got a great view upon landing and taking the GW parkway home.

I arrived Christmas eve. Per our new tradition, we had Chinese take-out for dinner. Jeila had a solo at the Christmas Eve 10:30pm service at St. Dunstan's so I went to that. We opened presents Christmas morning at Mom's. Then we headed over to Baba's house. Coda was waiting! He has a new trick:

Pirate Shoulder Cat!

I finally got to indulge in an Iranian feast!

 Naturally, tadig was the best part.

To be continued...

No Place Like Home

Sisters

I've been having so much fun out here.  My trip has been extended so I'm living it up. See you in 2012!

Home for the Holidays!

Wooo! I really am SO ready to go home :)

Things I've missed:

The cluster that is Tysons Corner Center at Christmas. I'm not even joking. I went to the Carbondale mall to get a Christmas gift and I found a parking spot right by the door. Where am I??

I have a gift certificate to Giant eating a hole in my wallet. What should I buy?

Sushi! Chinese. Panda!!

Kabobs - got to have some. At some point my goal is to make a Sunday dinner - kabobs, rice, tadig, yogurt and salad for Brandon's parents. I just have to practice. There are NO middle eastern restaurants even close. The only thing I found was a Lebanese restaurant in Cape.

Jeila Irdmusa.

I'll be there tomorrow morning!!!

A Trip Home

I got to spend this past weekend at home in McLean, VA visiting my family. I left Thursday evening after work and made the trip to St. Louis' Lambert Airport. As you can see the airport is still being repaired from the tornado damage:

My departing flight was with United to Chicago and then onto Washington-Dulles. The reason I came home (for the first time since moving) was because my brother Alex graduated from George Mason University.

On Friday morning Jeila and I headed over to Tysons Corner to visit my mom at work at Deloitte. She is the front desk receptionist. Check out her swanky office:

Then we headed over to the mall. The metro tracks have certainly taken over - exciting! We stopped in all my favorite stores but didn't buy anything. The highlight of the trip was my favorite Dippin Dots treat, Orange Sherbet:

Obsessed with this Flavor

Friday night was spent in Reston. We ate dinner at Big Bowl in the Reston Town Center and later that evening we went to The Reston Rave to see Bridesmaids.

On Saturday we slept in, had pancakes and headed back to McLean to set up for the graduation party. Although I missed Alex's formal ceremony, at least I got to go to the party. Cutting the cake:

The best part of the trip was getting to hang out with my siblings:

I said goodbye on Sunday afternoon after going to church. My flight back home was non-stop and with the 1 hour time change, it was only 2 hours. Brandon picked me up and on our way home I saw another scary farm tool:

Hauling Ammonia

I live here :-)