Festival of Lights

He had heard of a place you could drive through and see a festival of lights not too far from us so we decided to go.  It was fun to see the lights and the kids thought it was a lot of fun.  However, we didn't know that there was a carnival at the end.  The kids were very disappointed to not get to go to it, but the prices were like going to six flags for a day.  We did see Santa and have a little hayride that were free.  Piper had her itouch and became the official photographer of the event

 

National Tree

We figured since we live near DC that we should go see the national tree.  So one Sunday night we decided to head down to DC in the car, first time not to take the metro.  We stopped at a place where it had all the signers of the Declaration of Independence and saw Thomas McKean's signature.  He is a relative but is started to be debated in the family if he really is.  So we headed to the tree.  It was fun to walk through Santa's workshop and see Santa.  Piper told him she wanted headphone and Christian wanted anything Peanut's related i.e. Charlie Brown.  Each state decorates their own small tree around the national tree so it was fun to see all the trees and their decorations.  The Texas tree was filled with ornaments with different kind of birds and many of the others were homemade ornaments by kids or students.  They have a whole village to and train going around the national tree and the kids liked to throw pennies on the train (don't worry we only threw 4 pennies).  Brian and I both love that on the way back to the car the kids started to see Christmas Carols at the top of their lungs so we were caroling along down the sidewalk.  It was probably our favorite part.

 One of the first times with Brian to go to DC and have never gotten a picture with the Washington Monument.

 Christian wanted to be dressed like Rudolf for Santa

 Christian's name is on the second list from the left

McKean Family Christmas Letter 2012

Well, this year has brought on a lot of changes in our little world.  We moved halfway across the country to Virginia in June.  Celeste got into nursing school in Texas and had been in school for a whole week when Brian got a call for a promotion if he’d move to Virginia.  We prayed a lot about it, but we felt like it was the plan God had in store for us.  So Celeste quit nursing school and things happened fast.  We found a great home for our dog Shadow because we didn’t feel we would have a place for him in Virginia.  We sold our Texas home in a week, and for the price we wanted.  We found an amazing house in Virginia, with room to entertain and have visitors, and at a price that we could actually afford.  We really believe God’s hand was on it, from start to finish.

Christian turned 7 this year. He started 2nd grade this fall, and has adjusted well to his new school.  He says they work too much and don’t get enough time to play, which I tend to agree with.  His teacher did have a baby five weeks early, so that has rocked everyone’s world at his school, including his, but now he has a great long term sub.  This summer he learned a love for climbing trees and has made the tree in our front yard the neighborhood climbing tree.  We have seen as many as 6 kids in it at a time, and it is not that big of a tree.  He did gymnastics this year and got much better at his tumbling.  We are starting basketball for the first time soon, so we’ll see how that goes.  He bounces a ball everywhere right now.  He is very interested in tennis so we will see about getting lessons in the spring.  We have a ton of girls on our street, but thankfully he has found a great friend in a little 2^nd grade girl 2 doors down. He can’t wait to finish his homework so he can go out and play. He still loves to draw and has a new obsession every month ranging from Looney Tunes to Star Wars to Charlie Brown.  It is fun to see him explore new interests.Brian, Celeste, Piper and Christian McKean

Piper turned 9 this year, and started 3rd grade. She is adjusting well to her new school and we all love her teacher, who has had 40 plus years in education.  She was worried about a male teacher at first, but he has turned out to be awesome and really pushes her.  She has several friends on our street and same as Christian loves to go play outside with all the neighborhood kids.  She also loves to ride the bus with her best friend down the street.  Piper is still doing swimming and we might do swim team this summer.  She is also going to try basketball this year for the first time.  She is our little book worm and Brian is excited she is starting to read big books.  She is really into the old Nancy Drew books – at school she keeps a book handy, so she can read whenever she has a spare moment.  She also loves all the adventures and placed we have gotten to explore in this area, and loves going to the museums in DC.  She is actually ready to do some more exploring – she made a list of places we should go.

 Brian is still at CSC, although in his new role so far he hasn’t traveled as much – in fact, that was one of the reasons we moved. He has only taken one trip since June. If he hadn’t taken this promotion, he’d have taken 4 or 5 extended trips this year.  He does tend to work a little bit longer hours and traffic is a little crazier here, but we love seeing him at night and he gets to go to the kids’ events.  He might travel more next year, and CSC is now restructuring, so we’ll see where he ends up in the months ahead.  We found a local church and Brian plays bass there once or twice a month, but he still misses playing with Nino at the Hills Southlake.

Celeste has been keeping busy getting the family moved and then taking 12 hours of classes this fall toward getting into nursing school in Virginia.  The program at George Mason is only a one-year program and so if she is accepted, she’ll graduate only a semester later than she would have had in Texas.  Keep praying that she gets in!  She is also volunteering in the children’s ministry on Sunday morning and loves getting to know the 3 year olds.

We celebrated 13 years of marriage this year and keep going on adventures together!

Since we have moved Celeste has been better about updating our blog so

you can follow us there mckeanfamilyhappenings.blogspot.com.  You can also find us on facebook-Celeste Robertson Mckean or Brian McKean.

We are located only 30 miles from downtown Washington DC and are learning our way around.  We had some friends come this summer, and they highly recommend our place as a crash pad.  We are only about 5 minutes from the Air and Space Museum that houses the space shuttle Discovery.

Here is our contact info:

43066 Barons St.  South Riding, VA 20152

bcmckean@verizon.net

Celeste cell-817-602-4536

Brian cell-817-975-1247

We are thankful that God is with us everywhere.  We hope to be back to visit family and friends in Texas and Oklahoma and Kansas this Spring and Summer. We are very thankful for each and every one of you that have touched our lives in so many ways, and we pray that God will bless you and your family in the coming year.

We love you all!

Snowball Fight for Boy Scouts

The boy scouts have a snowball fight with new socks and donate them to charity.  The siblings and parents were invited too and they had a great time throwing snowballs at their den leaders.  It was a great time and the socks were given to a great cause.  They also adopted three families from our elementary school that have fallen on hard times to give them a great Christmas.  It is great to see my kids be involved with great programs with some great people.  I have several videos, but this is the picture I got of Christian with all his ammo!

New PJs and a Christmas movie

Our elf, Christopher Popin Kins, brought us some new PJs and a new Christmas movie to watch, Miracle on 34th st.  He got the old and newer version-we watched the newer and hopefully we will watch the older one sometime soon.