Operation Christmas Cheer: Capitol Tree, National Tree, and Willard Hotel

This week's goal is to get almost all of my Christmas posts done. We'll see how this goes.

I love the holidays every year, but this year I was especially determined to enjoy them. Sometimes I can get so caught up in the shopping and doing that I get too stressed to enjoy everything. So this year I started my shopping much earlier, and let myself be ok if I didn't get to do everything I normally do.

The result? I had an entire day before leaving for home – I'd even already half-packed for home – in which to do whatever I wanted. Thus I embarked on what I called Operation: Christmas Cheer. Which consisted of me doing my usual National Christmas Tree and Willard Hotel viewing, plus the addition of the Capitol Christmas Tree and the National Botanic Garden. Though my first stop of the day was the Botanic Garden, I'll start with the last three since I have so many beautiful pictures to sort through.

I've never made it to the Capitol Tree before, I'm not sure why. I expected it to be smaller but it was really quite large and majestic. I expected the Capitol to dwarf it but they really complemented each other.

The tree's ornaments came from people in Colorado and I took a few photos of my favorites. It wasn't too cold of a day and as you can see, the sun was shining and the sky was blazing Carolina blue, so I just took a few minutes to stand and stare.

After that, it was off to catch a bus to take me closer to the White House. (Figuring out even just one bus route along the mall is going to change my life.) Last year's tree was quite puny as it has just been replaced after the previous one was damaged during a storm. The replacement tree ended up dying and they replaced it with this much more grand one.

 
The state trees have different ornaments every year, with handmade creations encased in clear plastic cases. But this year some of them had decorated the outside of the case, like New York and Florida, or completely eschewed the cases like Idaho, who had gourds. Either there were new regulations this year or there have never been regulations and some states finally got creative, but they were much more impressive this year. My favorite was Florida, with their gorgeous orange blossoms that looked like glass.

 
This is Connecticut's tree. This was the day after the Sandy Hook tragedy and a little memorial was forming.

My last stop was to look at the outside and inside decorations at the Willard.

I used to only do the outside but I also love to go inside. Their main tree is full of all the past White House ornaments. They also had a pretty amazing gingerbread house.

Carolinians Take the Capitol

Last month, my mom and her four sisters played tourists in D.C. It was the sisters chance to explore and hang out together so I insinuated myself just twice: to host a dinner at my apartment and to tour the Capitol.

I took no photos of dinner, but I made stuffed shells, Caesar salad, and garlic bread. Mom brought an amazing caramel apple cake and some wine. Despite the shells being a bit cold due to a bit of a detour that brought them to my place later than expected, I'll call the dinner a success.

The next afternoon I took a few hours off work and met them at the Capitol Visitor's Center. Despite living a mere mile from the Capitol for 2 years, I never made it to the new Center, and my last Capitol tour was from Karey circa 2006, before I was even a Washingtonian.

The tour was given by a very knowledgeable and polite child – seriously, he was only 18 – and was well worth the time. I think we all greatly enjoyed the stories and history of everything, as well as a little hypothetical verbal smack down talk against a couple politicians.

A visit with some fellow Carolinians.

Rubbing this spot, where they wanted Washington to be buried, for luck.

The rotunda took my breath away again.

This is one of my favorite paintings that I repeatedly studied in school and even wrote a short essay on once. It never fails to make me smile.

On my last visit my favorite spot was the Old Supreme Court Chamber. We got to see it again and it definitely is still great.

However, my new favorite spot was getting to see the Old Senate Chamber. Why is that, you ask? Because this is where Senator Preston Brooks of South Carolina (of course) beat Senator Charles
Sumner of Massachusetts WITH A CANE in the 1800s. And who says politics is boring?

In verifying the names on Wikipedia I found that Brooks died at a mere 37 years old. Probably serves him right. It took Sumner 3 years to recover but he did return to service and lived to be 63. So he wins!

Just for fun, I took a picture of the floor where it very well could have happened and a picture of the ceiling, which would have been poor Sumner's view during the literal smack down. History nerd forever!

We all enjoyed the demonstration of the whispering spot.

As well as the staircase where presidents wait to enter the chamber.

And, not to be shallow, but there were some pretty shiny chandeliers, too.

Thank you, America.

"There is beauty in the everyday. And when people learn to look for it, they'll find inspiration in the least likely places." (Cade Martin)

I'm in love with this photo, taken by Cade Martin:

The ballerinas look so elegant and graceful; the man following like a footman right out of Cinderella. And the Carolina blue punchbug and umbrella are quite nice, too. But mostly I like the contrast between their art and the art of the business conducted in the Capitol behind them. And, of course, placing them in the ubiquitous crosswalk just reminds me of my most favorite crosswalk picture:

Day 236: Law of the land

So far the prime perk of my new place has been the location. I knew I was not very happy with life in the suburb-like Arlington, but I had forgotten how much I missed the city until I got here. And today I walked from my apartment to Capitol Hill, past the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court, which I had somehow never passed before. I've seen pretty much all of the important buildings here after this one, even though its beauty was slightly marred by the scaffolding, not that I should have been surprised.

Sadly, no sign of my favorite justice, Ruth Bader G. I also later read in front of the Capitol, which has far lusher grass than I've been able to find elsewhere, and obviously, a stunning view.