Boise Bakers

Happy New Year! We had a wonderful Christmas. We spent New Year's Eve with Mark's parents and sister Lisa, which was really nice, and then had a sweet, quiet Christmas day at home. Mom and dad came to visit us a couple days after Christmas and it was so wonderful to see them. The first night after they arrived we went on a tour of the White House. Mom got us the tour reservations, and in the confirmation email she received, they said to make sure we told the person at the gate that we were with the "Freeman Group." When we got to the White House, we were surprised to see a big line to get in, but we thought, "No problem, we're with the Freeman Group; we'll get right in." We told the guard at the gate and he was unimpressed; he just told us to get in the line. Apparently, everyone in the line was part of a group. It was kind of funny, and it became our joke for the night. (You probably had to be there :) ). The White House was decorated beautifully for Christmas and it really was impressive. The next day dad and Jeff had the flu and I had laryngitis. We decided to go to the Baltimore Aquarium as planned anyway (except for Jeff, who we left deathly ill in bed, but at least he got some peace and quiet for a few hours). When we got to the aquarium, there was a huge line (an hour and a half wait) just to get tickets ($25 a pop), and it would have closed an hour after we got in, so we just got ice cream sundaes instead, and then drove back bome, where we visited a pet store so Eva could see some fish like we promised (luckily, she's never been to an aquarium before, so she doesn't know the difference between the aquarium and a pet store :) ). So that was an adventure. During mom and dad's visit, we also went to the park, played pinochle, and just relaxed. It was so nice. We took mom and dad to the aiport Monday afternoon, and then celebrated New Year's Eve by going to bed at 9:00 like the party animals we are :).