Houseguests

That wealth of information, "Anonymous", once said "The ornaments of your house will be the guests who frequent it." Just as ornaments make a Christmas tree sparkle and come to life, friends and family who visit our home make it sparkle. Thankfully, we have been blessed with lots of "ornaments" the past few weeks!

Jenne and the kids visited over a long weekend. You may be wondering how we fit FIVE extra people in our two-bedroom apartment. Fortunately our guest bathroom is on the larger side so Lexie slept in the Pack & Play in that bathroom. Jenne and Nick were in the guest room  leaving Christopher and Ben to sleep on the floor in our room. We were on the go from morning till night- sightseeing, laughing, talking, eating- so having that many people cooped up in a small space was not an issue.

Whether it's jammin' at Target (Christopher-7), making silly faces in the metro station (Nick-5), "driving a ship" (Ben-3) or jumping in puddles (Lexie-2), we have a sparkly good time!

A few hours after Jenne and the kids left, our next houseguest, Laurie, arrived. Since I was in Arizona when she and her husband visited a few weeks ago, she stopped back at our place before returning home. One thing Laurie wanted to do was ride the metro (just like our grandkids did!). We drove about 30 minutes  to the metro station one morning and rode into Washington, D.C. where we went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. We saw the Hope diamond (really big and really sparkly!) as well as lots of other gems. Most of them were too gaudy for our tastes even if they were priceless. We ate a hot dog on the mall, walked to the Capitol Building then back to the Washington Monument, World War II Monument and the Reflecting Pool before heading back to the metro. I realized that after living here only six months, I was quite comfortable "leading a tour!" Besides sightseeing, talking, laughing and eating, we also saw a movie and went for a walk by Lake Kittamaqundi.

(photos courtesy of Laurie)

I love taking people to our nation's capital for the first time. It is such an awe-inspiring experience!

After all our houseguests departed, our apartment was a little too quiet and empty. But our hearts were overflowing with joy and love that comes from being with friends and family. And if you look hard enough, you can still see the sparkle.