Its Christmas in Washington

My mom and Anastasia at the Botanical Gardens.

One of the model trains

I spy the president

The lit Christmas tree

So I defiantly have the cold from Hell. One day I feel great, and then I wake up the next feeling like crap, barely able to speak. That was today. Maybe part of my prolonged sickness is from sitting out in the freezing cold at the lighting of the National Christmas tree. It was fun but freezing.

My mom, Caitlin, A and I went to DC for the day before the main event-- the so called, "pageant of Peace" although the cold that eats you alive is not very peaceful. And perhaps singing Christmas Carols in the cold (by our own free will) is lovely and all, but it seems somewhat hypocritical having a Peace Pageant celebrating Christmas while others are in Iraq fighting... and may be on Christmas day. I am not completely for or against the war... it just makes me sad that people are fighting abroad and people are buying into the consumer madness here during this Christmas season. It seems the meaning of the season gets so lost between empty bank accounts and people almost hitting your car for the closest parking spot at the mall (this happened to me a couple weeks ago!!!) We as a society have forgotten the Reason for the season... the baby in the manger.

On a completely other note... if you want to have a wonderful (and practically free) Christmas DC experience I highly recommend checking out the botanical gardens. They are completely decked out with poinsettias and model trains and georgeous Christmas trees. They also have a really neat hunt for kids to learn about different Christmas plant-derived items (eg. peppermint and vanilla). We had a total blast there! Then for a treat take the metro or a car to Union Station and check out their awesome model train and go to Vicaros for delicious cannolis. That is what we did (except we did it in the opposite order) and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with limited funds (except for the $4 cannoli and parking). So that was our big day and now I am paying for it. I don't know about anyone else but I LOVE the city at Christmastide... I am getting super pumped for Chicago in two weeks!!!