White House Christmas

I had the honor to once again go to the White House Holiday Party, or as I refer to it, the White House Christmas Party. This year, I took my friend Audrey as my guest. Honestly, she had been on the top of my list last year but then I met this boy, invited him, and she got moved down the list. Now that the boy is my fiance, I figured it was definitely her turn. Audrey is a dear friend (we traveled to Moscow together last fall) and she's going to be helping me with several things in the wedding planning process so I thought it would be nice to take her with me.

Of course, the highlight was getting our picture taken with POTUS and FLOTUS. Audrey talked to POTUS for a few minutes and invited him to church. I didn't have anything planned to say so I ended up having small talk with FLOTUS about the trip to Hawaii and the organic farm I went to with her. By the end of the conversation, my neck was hurting because THAT WOMAN IS TALL!! If you notice, I come to her WAIST! And I'm wearing heels!!

We had a great, great time! As I've mentioned before, one of the best things is taking someone who has never experienced being in the WH before and seeing it through their eyes. I'm pretty sure that Audrey loved it and had a great time! The White House was decorated beautifully as always and we had a great time mingling with my colleagues and sitting on pretty much every piece of furniture possible. It was a truly fun and memorable evening and I really do appreciate the Obamas for opening their home for us! :)

Crazy Realization!!!

I came to the realization that I am officially old enough to be POTUS. My birthday was recently, and I realized that I am now OLD ENOUGH TO BE THE POTUS!! I could run the country. I love America, don't get me wrong but I can't believe that the constitution allows someone like ME to run this wonderful nation!!

My birthday was spent with the best person in the world, Brian! We spent the day playing tourists and crossing things off of our list of things to do together. We started with a nice lunch downtown and then went to the International Spy Museum. The Spy Museum is one of Brian's favorites (it's like his version of how the Newseum is to me!) but I had never been! So we went and learned a lot. The only down side is that I am now exceptionally paranoid and think everyone around me is a spy!! :)

We also celebrated with birthday cupcakes at Red Velvet Cupcakes and then went to see the presidential portraits collection in the National Portrait Gallery. We ended the day at a Christmas party (that's one of the blessings or curses of having a Christmas birthday and it just so happens to fall on a weekend!) with friends from church. We had a great time and just spending the day together with nothing really on the agenda was a wonderful treat!

'Tis the Season!!

Oh my! It's been a while! I guess I should apologize once again for my blog-slackness! Planning a wedding is not helping in my quest to be a good blogger. Who knew it was so much work? :) But it will be well worth it!

So let me catch you up on the month of December so far! Well, I had a week off work at the beginning of the month. I had a to-do list ten miles long to prepare for Christmas and cross some things off the wedding prep list. I'm proud to say that I accomplished most of what I set out to do. Unfortunately, there are still several biggies on the wedding prep list but I'm not stressing about them. I'm trying to keep this wedding planning thing as low-stressed as possible. Many people have told me that planning a wedding will make me want to elope and I just don't want that to be the case!

Anyway, back to the events of recent days.... We put up my Christmas tree before December 1st so it's been great to be in the Christmas spirit all month long! Every year, I really enjoy putting up each ornament and remembering where I got each ornament from. I love reliving each trip and story and remembering dear friends who have contributed to the collection! All of the ornaments from my childhood are on there, as well as the ornaments that my mom has made through the years. Perhaps some of my favorites are ones that my mom gave me from ornaments from her tree when she was a little girl and in particular the little blue glass ball that was on my grandparents' tree when they were first married nearly 75 years ago!

Once again, I played the oboe in my church's Living Christmas Tree. There were several oboe solo lines and I didn't screw up on any of them. In fact, despite of my playing, the music was beautiful, if I do say so myself! Every year, the LCT seems to go by quicker and quicker but this year my lips hurt more than ever too! But it was a lot of fun and gave a really good message about the birth of Christ and his impact on our lives. I encourage anyone in the area to check it out next year!!